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THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM.
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Copyright 1922
by
Lucifer Publishing Company
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM
by
ALICE A. BAILEY
'■T'
A series of lectures delivered in New York City
Winter of 1921-22.
Author of
"Letters on Occult Meditation"
"Initiation, Human and Solar"
First Edition
Lucifer Publishing Co.
135 Broadway,
New York City.
^\*$\
^2^
OCT 17 '22
)C1A683744
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
The Field of Evolution.
LECTURE II.
The Evolution of Substance.
LECTURE III.
The Evolution of Form, or Group Evolution.
LECTURE IV.
The Evolution of Man, the Thinker.
LECTURE V.
The Evolution of Consciousness.
LECTURE VI.
The Goal of Evolution.
LECTURE VII.
Cosmic Evolution.
FOREWORD
The lectures here presented were delivered in New
York during the past winter. The purpose of this series
was to present to their auditors the testimony of science
as to the relation of matter and of consciousness; to en-
able the hearers to observe the identical manifestation of
these relations and of certain basic laws in successively
higher states of being, and thus to bring to them a realiza-
tion of the universality of the evolutionary process and its
actuality; and to deal somewhat with the nature of the ex-
panded states of consciousness and the enlarged life to-
ward which all mankind is traveling. They thus were in-
tended to serve as an introduction to the more detailed
study and application of the laws of life and human un-
foldment generally included in the term of "occultism."
It will be observed that there is in this series a con-
siderable amount of repetition, as each lecture briefly re-
views the matters covered in the preceding addresses. As
newcomers were present at each lecture in the series, it
was found necessary on each occasion to present a bird's
eye view of the ground covered and the reasons for the
position then taken. A further advantage was found in
the fixing in the minds of the hearers of certain of these
basic concepts which were new to many of them, and which
helped to enable them to grasp and to receive readily the
further expansion of the theme. In presenting the lectures
in book form it has been deemed advisable to retain the
complete text of the lectures as given. Those who are al-
ready students of the esoteric wisdom will be able to fol-
low the line of the argument of the lectures without diffi-
culty. For those however, who for the first time approach
the consideration of the matters here discussed, the occa-
sional repetition of the fundamental points may help to a
ready apprehension, and it is for this class of readers that
the book is primarily intended.
Alice A. Bailey
September, 1922.
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM.
LECTURE I.
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION,
There has probably never been a period in the history
of thought entirely resembling the present. Thinkers
everywhere are conscious of two things, first, that the
region of mystery has never before been so clearly defined,
and secondly, that that region can be entered more easily
than has hitherto been the case ; it may, therefore, perhaps
be induced to render up some of its secrets if investigators
of all schools pursue their search with determination. The
problems with which we are faced, as we study the known
facts of life and existence, are susceptible of clearer de-
finition than heretofore, and though we do not know the
answer to our questions, though we have not as yet dis-
covered the solution to our problems, though no panacea
lies ready to our hand whereby we can remedy the world's
ills, yet the very fact that we can define them, that we can
point in the direction in which mystery lies, and that the
light of science, of religion, and of philosophy, has been
shed upon vast tracts which were earlier considered lands
of darkness, is a guarantee of success in the future. We
know so much more than was the case five hundred years
ago, except in a few circles of wise men and mystics; we
have discovered so many laws of nature, even though as
yet we cannot apply them, and the knowledge of "things
as they are" (and I choose these words very deliberately)
has made immense strides.
2 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION
Nevertheless, the mystery land still remains to be
opened up, and our problems are still numerous. There
is the problem of our own particular life, whatever that
may be; there is the problem of that which is largely
termed the "Not-Self", and which concerns our physical
body, our environment, our circumstances, and our life
conditions; if we are of an introspective turn of mind,
there is the problem of our particular set of emotions, and
of the thoughts, desires, and instincts by which we control
action. Group problems are many; why should there be
suffering, starvation, and pain? Why should the world
as a whole be in the thrall of the direst poverty, of sickness,
of discomfort? What is the purpose underlying all that
we see around us, and what will be the outcome of world
affairs, viewing them as a whole? What is the destiny of
the human race, what is its origin, and what is the key
to its present condition? Is there more than this one life,
and is the sole interest to be found in that which is ap-
parent and material? Such queries pass through all our
minds at various times, and have passed through the minds
of thinkers right down through the centuries.
There have been many attempts to reply to these ques-
tions, and as we study them, we find that the answers
given fall into three main groups, and that three prin-
cipal solutions are held out for the consideration of men.
These three solutions are : —
First, Realism. Another name for this school is that
of Materialism. It teaches that "the presentation which
we have in consciousness of an external world is true";
that things are what they seem; that matter and force,
as we know them, are the only reality, and that it is not
possible for man to get beyond the tangible. He should
be satisfied with facts as he knows them, or as science tells
him they are. This is a perfectly legitimate method of
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 3
solution, but for some of us it fails in that it does not go
far enough. In refusing to concern itself with anything
except that which can be proven and demonstrated it stops
short at the very point where the enquirer says, "that is so,
but why?" It leaves out of its calculation much that is
known and realised as truth by the average man, even
though he may be unable to explain why he knows it to be
true. Men everywhere are recognising the accuracy of
the facts of the realistic school, and of material science,
yet at the same time they feel innately that there is, under-
lying the proven objective manifestation, some vitalising
force, and some coherent purpose which cannot be ac-
counted for in terms of matter alone.
Secondly, there is the point of view which we can best,
perhaps, call supernaturalism. Man becomes conscious
that perhaps, after all, things are not exactly what they
seem to be, and that there remains much which is in-
explicable; he awakens to the realisation that he himself
is not simply an accumulation of physical atoms, a ma-
terial something, and a tangible body, but that latent with-
in him is a consciousness, a power, and a psychic nature
which link him to all other members of the human family,
and to a power outside himself which he must perforce
explain. This it is which has led, for instance, to the
evolution of the Christian and Jewish point of view, which
posits a God outside the solar system, Who created it, but
was Himself extraneous to it. These systems of thought
teach that the world has been evolved by a Power or Being
Who has built the solar system, and Who guides the worlds
aright, keeping our little human life in the hollow of His
hand, and "sweetly ordering" all things according to some
hidden purpose which it is not possible for us, with our
finite minds, to glimpse, still less to understand. This is
the religious and supernatural point of view, and is based
4 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION
on the growing selfconsciousness of the individual, and in
a recognition of his own divinity. Like the point of view
of the realistic school, it embodies only a partial truth,
and needs to be complemented.
The third line of thought we might call the Idealistic.
It posits an evolutionary process within all manifestation,
and identifies life with the cosmic process. It is the exact
opposite of materialism, and brings the supernatural deity,
predicated by the religionist, into the position of a great
Entity or Life, Who is evolving through, and by means of,
the universe, just as man is evolving consciousness through
the medium of an objective physical body.
In these three standpoints — the frankly materialistic,
the purely supernatural, and the idealistic — you have the
three main lines of thought which have been put forward
as explanatory of the cosmic process; all of them are
partial truths, yet none of them is complete without the
others, all of them, when followed alone, lead into byways
and into darkness, and leave the central mystery still un-
solved. When synthesised, when brought together and
blended, and when unified, they embody, perhaps, ( I offer
this simply as a suggestion) just as much of the evolution-
ary truth as it is possible for the human mind to grasp at
the present stage of evolution.
We are dealing with large problems, and tampering,
perhaps, with high and lofty things; we are trespassing
into regions which are the recognised domain of meta-
physics ; and we are endeavouring to sum up in a few brief
talks what all the libraries of the world are embodying;
we are therefore attempting the impossible. All that we
can do is to take up briefly and cursorily first one aspect
of the truth and then another. All we can possibly ac-
complish is an outline of the basic lines of evolution, a
study of their relationship to each other and to ourselves
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 5
as conscious entities, and then an endeavour to blend and
synthesise the little we can know until some general idea
of the process as a whole becomes clearer.
We have to remember in connection with every state-
ment of truth that each is made from a particular point of
view. Until we have further developed our mental pro-
cesses, and until we are able to think in abstract terms as
well as in concrete, it will not be possible for us to fully
answer the question, What is truth? nor to express any
aspect of that truth in a perfectly unbiassed way. Some
people have a wider horizon than others, and some can see
the unity underlying the differing aspects. Others are
prone to think that their outlook and interpretation is the
only one. I hope in these talks to broaden somewhat our
point of view. I hope we shall come to the realisation that
the man who is only interested in the scientific aspect, and
who confines himself to the study of those manifestations
which are purely material, is just as much occupied with
the study of the divine as is his frankly religious brother
who only concerns himself with the spiritual side; and
that the philosopher is, after all, occupied in emphasising
for us the very necessary aspect of the intelligence which
links the matter aspect and the spiritual, and blends
them into one coherent whole. Perhaps by the union
of these three lines of science, religion, and philoso-
phy, we may get a working knowledge of the truth as it
is, remembering at the same time that "truth lies within
ourselves." No one man's expression of the truth is the
whole expression, and the sole purpose of thought is to
enable us to build constructively for ourselves, and to work
in mental matter.
I should like to outline my plan this evening, to lay
the groundwork for our future talks, and to touch upon
the main lines of evolution. The line that is most apparent
6 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION
is necessarily that which deals with the evolution of sub-
stance, with the study of the atom, and the nature of atom-
ic matter. Next week Ave will touch upon that. Science
has much to tell us about the evolution of the atom, and
has wandered a long way during the past fifty years from
the standpoint of the last century. Then the atom was re-
garded as an indivisible unit of substance ; now it is looked
upon as a centre of energy, or electric force. From the
evolution of substance we are led very naturally to the
evolution of forms, or of congeries of atoms, and there will
then open up to us the interesting consideration of forms
other than the purely material, — forms existing in subtler
substance, such as forms of thought, and the racial forms,
and the forms of organisations. In this dual study, one
of the aspects of deity will be emphasised, should you
choose to use the term "deity", or one of the manifestations
of nature, should you prefer that less sectarian expression.
We shall then be led to the consideration of the evolu-
tion of intelligence, or of the factor of mind which is work-
ing out as ordered purpose in all that we see around us.
This will reveal to us a world which is not blindly going
on its way, but which has back of it some plan, some co-
ordinated scheme, some organised concept which is work-
ing itself out by means of the material form. One reason
why things appear to us so difficult of comprehension is
involved in the fact that we are in the midst of a transition
period, and the plan is as yet imperfect ; we are too close
to the machinery, being ourselves an integral part of the
whole. We see a little bit of it here, and another little
bit there, but the whole grandeur of the idea is not appar-
ent to us. We may have a vision, we may have a high mo-
ment of revelation, but when we contact the reality on
every side, we question the possibility of the ideal materi-
alising, for the intelligent relationship between the form
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 7
and that which utilises it seems so far from adjustment.
The recognition of the factor of the intelligence will
inevitably lead us to the contemplation of the evolution
of consciousness in its many forms, ranging all the way
from those types of consciousness which we consider sub-
human, through the human, up to what may be logically
posited (even if it may not be demonstrated) to be super-
human consciousness. The next question which will face
us will be, what lies back of all these factors? Is there,
behind the objective form and its animating intelligence,
an evolution which corresponds to the "I" faculty, to the
Ego in man? Is there in nature, and in all that we see
around us, the working out of the purpose of an indi-
vidualised self conscious Being? If there is such a Being,
and such a fundamental existence, we should be able to
see somewhat His intelligent activities, and to watch His
plans working towards fruition. Even if we cannot prove
that God is, and that the Deity exists, it may be possible to
say, at least, that the hypothesis that He exists is a rea-
sonable one, a rational suggestion, and a possible solution
of all the mysteries we see around us. But to do that it
has to be demonstrated that there is an intelligent pur-
pose working through forms of every kind, through races
and nations, and through all that we see manifesting in
modern civilisation ; the steps that that purpose has taken,
and the gradual growth of the plan, will have to be dem-
onstrated, and from that demonstration we shall perhaps
be able to see what lies ahead for us in the coming stages.
Let us for a minute consider what we mean by the
words "evolutionary process". They are constantly being-
used, and the average man well knows that the word
"evolution" suggests an unfolding from within out-
wards, and the unrolling from an inner centre, but we
need to define the idea more clearly, and thus get a better
8 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION
concept. One of the best definitions which I have come
across is that which defines evolution as "the unfolding of
a continually increasing power to respond." Here we have
a definition that is very illuminating as we consider the
matter aspect of manifestation. It involves the concep-
tion of vibration, and of response to vibration, and though
we may in time have to discard the term "matter", and
employ some such expression as "force centre", the con-
cept still holds good, and the response of the centre to
stimulation is even more accurately to be seen. In con-
sidering human consciousness this same definition is of
real value. It involves the idea of a gradually increasing
realisation, of the developing response of the subjective
life to its environment, and it leads us eventually on and
up to the ideal of a unified Existence which will be the
synthesis of all the lines of evolution, and to a conception
of a central Life, or force, which blends and holds together
all the evolving units, whether they are units of matter,
such as the atom of the chemist and the physicist, or units
of consciousness, such as human beings. This is evolu-
tion, the process which unfolds the life within all units,
the developing urge which eventually merges all units and
all groups, until you have that sum total of manifestation
which can be called Nature, or God, and which is the aggre-
gate of all the states of consciousness. This is the God to
Whom the Christian refers when he says "in Him we live,
and move, and have our being" ; this is the force, or energy,
which the scientist recognises; and this is the universal
mind, or the Oversoul of the philosopher. This, again, is
the intelligent Will which controls, formulates, binds, con-
structs, develops, and brings all to an ultimate perfection.
This is that Perfection which is inherent in matter itself,
and the tendency which is latent in the atom, in man, and
in all that is. This interpretation of the evolutionary
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 9
process does not look upon it as the result of an outside
Deity pouring His energy and wisdom upon a waiting
world, but rather as something which is latent within
that world itself, that lies hidden at the heart of the atom
of chemistry, within the heart of man himself, within the
planet, and within the solar system. It is that something
which drives all on toward the goal, and is the force which
is gradually bringing order out of chaos; ultimate per-
fection out of temporary imperfection; good out of seem-
ing evil; and out of darkness and disaster that which we
shall some day recognise as beautiful, right, and true. It
is all that we have visioned and conceived of in our highest
and best moments.
Evolution has also been denned as "cyclic develop-
ment", and this definition brings me to a thought which
I am very anxious that we should thoroughly grasp.
Nature repeats continuously until certain definite ends
have been reached, certain concrete results have been
brought about, and certain responses made to vibration.
It is by the recognition of this accomplishment that the
intelligent purpose of indwelling Existence can be dem-
onstrated. The method whereby this is achieved is that
of discrimination, or of intelligent choice. There are, in
the text-books of different schools, many words which are
used to convey the same general idea, such as "natural
selection", or "attraction and repulsion". I would like, if
possible, to avoid technical terms, because they are used
by one school of thought to mean one thing, and by another,
something different. If we can find a word similar in in-
tent, yet not tied to any particular line of thought, we may
find fresh light thrown upon our problem. Attraction and
repulsion in the solar system is but the discriminating
faculty of the atom or of man demonstrating in the planets
and the sun. It will be found in atoms of all kinds; we
10 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION
can call it adaptation, if we so choose, or the power to grow
and to adapt the unit to its environment through the re-
jection of certain factors and the acceptance of others. It
shows itself in man as free will, or the power to choose,
and in the spiritual man it can be seen as the tendency
to sacrifice, for a man then chooses a particular line of
action in order to benefit the group to which he belongs,
and rejects that which is purely selfish.
We might finally define evolution as ordered change
and constant mutation. It demonstrates in the ceaseless
activity of the unit or the atom, the interaction between
groups, and the endless play of one force or type of energy
upon another.
We have seen that evolution, whether it is of matter,
of intelligence, of consciousness, or of spirit, consists in
an ever increasing power to respond to vibration, that it
progresses through constant change, by the practice of a
selective policy or the use of the discriminative faculty,
and by the method of psychic development or repetition.
The stages which distinguish the evolutionary process
might be broadly divided into three, corresponding to the
stages in the life of a human being: childhood, adoles-
cence, and maturity. Where man is concerned these
stages can be traced in the human unit or in the race, and
as the civilisations pass on and increase, it should surely
become possible to trace the same threefold idea in the
human family as a whole, and thus ascertain the divine
objective through the study of His image, or reflection,
MAN. We might express these three stages in more
scientific terms, and link them with the three schools of
thought earlier referred to, studying them as,
a. The stage of atomic energy.
b. The stage of group coherency.
c. The stage of unified or synthetic existence.
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 11
Let me see if I can make my meaning clear. The stage
of atomic energy is largely that which concerns the ma-
terial side of life, and corresponds to the childhood period
in the life of a man or a race. It is the time of realism, of
intense activity, of development by action above all else,
or pnre self-centredness and self-interest. It produces the
materialistic point of view, and leads inevitably to selfish-
ness. It involves the recognition of the atom as being en-
tirely self-contained, and similarly of the human unit as
having a separate life apart from all other units, and with
no relationship to others. Such a stage can be seen in the
little evolved races of the world, in small children, and in
those who are little developed. They are normally self-
centred ; their energies are concerned with their own life ;
they are occupied with the objective and with that which
is tangible ; they are characterised by a necessary and pro-
tective selfishness. It is a most necessary stage in the de-
velopment and perpetuation of the race.
Out of this selfish atomic period grows another stage,
that of group coherency. This involves the building up of
forms or species until you have something coherent and
individualised in itself as a whole, yet which is composed
of many lesser individualities and forms. In connection
with the human being it corresponds to his awakening
realisation of responsibility, and to his recognition of his
place within the group. It necessitates an ability on his
part to recognise a life greater than himself, whether that
life is called God, or whether it is simply regarded as the
life of the group to which a man, as a unit, belongs, that
great Identity of which we are each a part. This corre-
sponds to the school of thought which we called the super-
natural, and it must be succeeded in time by a truer and
a wider concept. As we have already seen, the first or
atomic stage developed by means of selfishness, or the self-
12 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION
centred life of the atom (whether the atom of substance
or the human atom) ; the second stage grows to perfection
by the sacrifice of the unit to the good of the many, and
of the atom to the group in which it has place. This stage
is something which we, as yet, know practically little
about, and is what we often vision and hope for.
The third stage lies a long way ahead, and may be
considered by many a vain chimera. But some of us have
a vision, which, even if unattainable at present, is logical-
ly possible if our premises are correct, and our foundation
is rightly laid. It is that of unified existence. Not only
will there be the separate units of consciousness ; not only
the differentiated atoms within the form, not only will
there be the group made up of a multiplicity of identities,
but we shall have the aggregate of all forms, of all groups,
and of all states of consciousness blended, unified, and
synthesised into a perfected whole. This whole you may
call the solar system, you may call it nature, or you may
call it God. Names matter not. It corresponds to the
adult stage in the human being; it is analogous to the
period of maturity, and to that stage wherein a man is
supposed to have a definite purpose and life work, and a
clear-cut plan in view, which he is working out by the aid
of his intelligence. In these talks I should like, if I can, to
show that something like this is going on in the solar sys-
tem, in the planet, in the human family, and in the atom.
I trust that we can prove that there is an intelligence un-
derlying all; and that from separation will come union,
produced through blending and merging into group forma-
tion, and that eventually from the many groups will be
seen emerging the one perfect, fully conscious whole, com-
posed of myriads of separated identities animated by one
purpose and one will. If this is so, what is the next prac-
tical step ahead for those who come to this realisation?
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 13
How can we make practical application of this ideal to our
own lives, and ascertain our immediate duty so that we
may participate in, and consciously further the plan? In
the cosmic process we have our tiny share, and each day
of activity should see us playing our part with intelligent
understanding.
Our first aim should surely be self realisation through
the practice of discrimination; we must learn to think
clearly for ourselves, to formulate our own thoughts and
to manipulate our own mental processes; we must learn
to know what we think and why we think it, to find out
the nature of our life, and to experiment. We find our-
selves, and know ourselves, through the method of dis-
crimination and of selection and rejection.
When this is the practice of our lives, and the habit
of our thought, we can then endeavour to find out the
meaning of group consciousness through the study of the
law of sacrifice. Not only must we find ourselves through
the primary childhood stage of selfishness (and surely that
should lie behind us), not only should we learn to dis-
tinguish between the real and the unreal, through the prac-
tice of discrimination, but we should endeavour to pass on
from that to something very much better. For us the
immediate goal should be to find the group to which we
may belong. We do not belong to all groups, nor can we
consciously realise our place in the one great Body, but
we can find some group in which we have our place, some
body of people with whom we can co-operate and work,
some brother or brothers whom we can succour and assist.
It really involves the conscious contacting of the ideal of
brotherhood, and — until we have evolved to the stage
where our concept is universal — it means finding the par-
ticular set of brothers whom we can love and help by means
of the law of sacrifice, and by the transmutation of selfish-
14 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION
ness into loving service. Thus we can co-operate in the
general purpose, and participate in the mission of the
group.
Next week Ave will follow out some of these ideas in
connection with the evolution of substance, and the part it
plays in the general scheme.
LECTURE II.
THE EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE.
It is obvious that in such a series of lectures as this
it would be impossible to deal adequately in any way with
this stupendous subject, even were I equipped to lecture
on such a fundamentally scientific matter. Again, if the
conclusions of science were definite upon the evolution of
matter, the topic would be, even then, too vast to handle,
but they are not, and hence the further complicating of
the subject. Therefore I want to preface my remarks to-
night by stating that my aim is to speak particularly for
those who have no scientific training of any land, and to
give them a general concept of the usually accepted ideas ;
I seek, then, to make some suggestions which we may find
helpful in adjusting our minds to this great problem of
matter. Usually when the substance aspect of manifesta-
tion has been considered, it has been as a thing apart, and
it is only lately that what I might call the "psychology of
matter" is beginning to come before the mind of the pub-
lic through the investigations and conclusions of the
broader minded scientists.
You will remember that last week I endeavoured, in
a broad and general way, to point out to you that there
were three lines of approach to the study of the material
universe. There is the line which considers only the ma-
terialistic aspect, and is occupied only with that which can
be seen, which is tangible, and which can be proven. A
second line is that of supernaturalism, which recognises
15
16 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
not so much the material side of things as that which is
called divine ; it deals with the life side, and with the spirit
aspect, viewing that Life as a power extraneous to the
solar system and to man, and positing that power as a
great creative Agent, Who creates and guides the objective
universe and yet is outside of it. These two lines of
thought can be seen upheld by the frankly materialistic
scientist, the orthodox Christian, and the deist of every
faith.
I indicated next a third line of approach to the prob-
lem, and we called it the idealistic concept. It recognises
the material form, but sees also the life within it, and it
posits a Consciousness or Intelligence which is evolving
by means of that outer form. You will find, I think, that
that is the line which I shall emphasise and stress in these
lectures. No speaker is able, after all, to dissociate him-
self entirely from his own point of view, and in these talks
I have set myself the task of working along this third line,
for to me it synthesises the other two, and adds certain
concepts which produce a coherent whole when merged
with the other two. It is for you to decide if this third
standpoint is logical, reasonable, and clear.
The most common fact in life for all of us is that of
the material world, — that world which we can see and con-
tact by means of the five senses, and which is called by the
metaphysical thinkers the "not-self", or that which is ob-
jective to each one of us. As we all know, the work of
the chemist is to reduce all known substances to their very
simplest elements, and it was thought not long ago that
this had been satisfactorily accomplished. The con-
clusions of the chemist placed the number of the known
elements between seventy and eighty. About twenty years
ago, however, (in 1898) a new element was discovered
which was called Eadium, and this discovery entirely
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 17
revolutionized the world's thought about matter and sub-
stance. If you will go to the text-books of the last century,
or search the old dictionaries, seeking for the definition of
the atom, for instance, you will usually find Newton
quoted. He defined the atom as "a hard, indivisible, ulti-
mate particle", a something which was incapable of fur-
ther subdivision. This was considered to be the ultimate
atom in the universe, and was called by the scientist of the
Victorian era "the foundation stone of the universe" ; they
considered they had gone as far back as it was possible to
go, and that they had discovered what lay back of all mani-
festation and of objectivity itself. But when radium, and
the other radio-active substances, had been discovered, an
entirely new aspect of the situation had to be faced. It
became apparent that what was considered the ultimate
particle was not so at all. As you now have the definition
of the atom (I am quoting from the Standard Dictionary)
it is:
"An atom is a centre of force, a phase of electric-
al phenomena, a centre of energy, active through
its own internal make-up, and giving off energy
or heat or radiation."
Therefore, an atom is (as Lord Kelvin in 1867 thought it
would ultimately turn out to be) a "vortex ring", or centre
of force, and not a particle of what we understand as
tangible substance. This ultimate particle of matter is
now demonstrated to be composed of a positive nucleus of
energy, surrounded — just as is the sun by the planets —
with many electrons or negative corpuscles, thus subdivid-
ing the atom of earlier science into numerous lesser bodies.
The elements differ according to the number and arrange-
ment of these negative electrons around their positive
nucleus, and they rotate or move around this central
charge of electricity as our planetary system rotates
18 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
around the sun. Professor Soddy, in one of his latest
books, has pointed out that in the atom is to be seen an
entire solar system, — the central sun can be recognised,
with the planets pursuing their orbital paths around it.
It would be apparent to each of us that when this
definition of the atom is contemplated and studied an en-
tirely new concept of substance comes before us. Dog-
matic assertions are therefore out of order, for it is realised
that perhaps the next discovery may reveal to us the fact
that the electrons themselves may be worlds within worlds.
An interesting speculation along these lines is to be found
in a book by one of our scientific thinkers in which he sug-
gests that we might be able to divide and subdivide the
electron itself into what he calls "psychons", and thus be
led into realms which are not now considered physical.
That may be only a dream, but the thing that I am seeking
to impress upon my mind and yours is that we scarcely
know where we stand in scientific thought, any more than
we know where we stand in the religious and economic
world. Everything is passing through a period of transi-
tion; the old order changeth; the old way of looking at
things is proving false or inadequate; the old expressions
of thought seem futile. All that the wise man can do just
now is to reserve his opinion, ascertain for himself what
appeals to him as truth, and endeavour then to synthesise
that particular aspect of universal truth with that aspect
which has been accepted by his brother.
The atom, then, can be predicated as resolving itself
into electrons, and can be expressed in terms of force or
energy. When you have a centre of energy or activity you
are involved in a dual concept ; you have that which is the
cause of movement or energy, and that which it energises
or actuates. This brings us directly into the field of psy-
chology, because energy or force is ever regarded as a
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 19
quality, and where you have a quality you are really con-
sidering the field of psychic phenomena.
There are certain terms in use when considering sub-
stance which are continuously appearing, and about which
there is a wide diversity of definition. In looking over one
scientific book last week it was discouraging to find the
author pointing out that the atom of the chemist, of the
physicist, of the mathematician, and of the metaphysician
were four totally different things. That is another reason
why it is not possible to be dogmatic in dealing with these
questions. Nevertheless, rightly or wrongly, I have a very
definite hypothesis to put before you. When we talk about
radium, we are, in all probability, venturing into the realm
of etheric substance,, the region of ether, or of protyle.
Protyle was a word coined by Sir William Crookes, and
is defined by him as follows :
"Protyle is a word analogous to protoplasm, to
express the idea of the original primal matter before
the evolution of the chemical elements. The word I
have ventured to use for this purpose is compounded
of a Greek word 'earlier than', and 'the stuff of
which things are made'."
We are, therefore, throwing the concept of matter
back to where the oriental school has always put it, to
primordial stuff, to that which the orientalist calls "prim-
ordial ether", though we must ever remember that the ether
of science is many, many removes from the primordial ether?
of the oriental occultist. We are led back to that intangible
something which is the basis of the objective thing which
you and I can see and touch and handle. The word "sub-
stance" itself means that which "stands under", or which
lies back of things. All, therefore, that we can predicate
in connection with the ether of space is that it is the medi-
um in which energy or force functions, or makes itself felt.
20 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
When we are talking in these lectures of energy and force,
and of matter and substance, we can separate them in our
minds thus: We speak about energy and substance
when we are considering that which is as yet intangible,
and we use force in connection with matter when dealing
with that aspect of the objective which our scientists are
definitely studying. Substance is the ether in one of its
many grades, and is that which lies back of matter itself.
WTien we speak of energy there must be that which
energises, that which is the source of energy and the origin
of that force which demonstrates in matter. It is here that
I seek to lay the emphasis. Whence comes this energy, and
what is it?
Scientists are recognising ever more clearly that
atoms possess qualities, and it would be interesting if one
were to take the different scientific books dealing with the
subject of atomic matter, and note which of the many and
varying terms applied to them could be applied to a human
being also. On a small scale I have attempted this, and
found it very illuminating.
First of all, as we know, the atom is spoken of as pos-
sessing energy, and the power to change from one mode of
activity to another. One writer has remarked that "abso-
lute intelligence thrills through every atom in the world."
In this connection I want to point out to you what Edison
is reported by an interviewer as having said, in Harper's
Magazine for February, 1890, and which is enlarged upon
in the Scientific American for October, 1920. In the earlier
instance he is quoted as follows :
"I do not believe that matter is inert, acted upon by
an outside force. To me it seems that every atom is
possessed by a certain amount of primitive intelli-
gence. Look at the thousands of ways in which atoms
of hydrogen combine with those of other elements,
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 21
forming the most diverse substances. Do yon mean to
say that they do this without intelligence? Atoms in
harmonious and useful relation assume beautiful or
interesting shapes and colours, or give forth a pleas-
ant perfume, as if expressing their satisfaction
gathered together in certain forms, the atoms consti-
tute animals of the lower order. Finally they com-
bine in man, who represents the total intelligence of
all the atoms."
"But where does this intelligence come from origin-
_ ally?" asked the interviewer.
"From some power greater than ourselves," Edison
answered.
"Do you believe, then, in an intelligent Creator, a
personal God?"
"Certainly. The existence of such a Grod can, to my
mind, be proved from chemistry."
In the long interview quoted last year in the Scientific
American, Edison laid down a number of most interesting
surmises from which I have culled the following :
1. Life, like matter is indestructible.
2. Our bodies are composed of myriads of infinite-
simal entities, each in itself a unit of life ; just as the
atom is composed of myriads of electrons.
3. The human being acts as an assemblage rather
than as a unit; the body and mind express the vote
or voice of the life entities.
4. The life entities build according to a plan. If a
part of the life organism be mutilated, they rebuild
exactly as before
7. Science admits the difficulty of drawing the line
between the inanimate and the animate; perhaps the
life entities extend their activities to crystals and
chemicals
22 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
9. The life entities live for ever; so that to this
extent at least the eternal life which many of us hope
for is a reality.
In an address given by Sir Clifford Allbut, President
of the British Medical Association, as reported in the Liter-
ary Digest of February 26th, 1921, he speaks of the ability
of the microbe to select and reject, and in the course of his
remarks he says : —
"When the microbe finds itself in the host's body it
may be wholly out of tune, or wholly in tune, with any
or all cells that it approaches ; in either case presum-
ably nothing morbid would happen morbid
happenings would lie between this microbe and body-
cells within its range but not in tune with it. Now
there seems to be reason to suppose that a microbe, on
its approach to a body cell only just out of its range,
may try this way and that to get a hitch on. If so, the
microbe, at first innocuous, would become noxious. So,
on the other hand, body-cells may educate themselves
to vibrate in harmony with a microbe before disson-
ant; or there may be mutual interchange and co-
adaptation
"But, if things be so, surely we are face to face with
a marvelous and far-reaching faculty, the faculty of
choice, and this rising from the utter bottom of bi-
ology to the summit— formative faculty — 'auto-de-
termination', or, if you please, -mind'."
In the year 1895, Sir William Crookes, one of our
greatest scientists, gave an interesting lecture before a
body of chemists in Great Britain, in which he dealt with
the ability of the atom to choose its own path, to reject and
to select, and showed that natural selection can be traced
in all forms of life, from the then ultimate atom up
through all forms of being.
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 23
In another scientific article, the atom is further ac-
cused of having sensation as well :
"The recent contest as to the nature of atoms, which
we must regard as in some form or other the ultimate
factors in all physical and chemical processes, seems
to be capable of easiest solution by the conception
that these very minute masses possess — as centres of
force — a persistent soul, that every atom has sensation
and power of movement."
Tyndall has likewise pointed out that even the very
atoms themselves seem to be ••instinct with the desire for
life."
If you take these different qualities of the atom —
energy, intelligence, ability to select and reject, to attract
and repulse, sensation, movement, and desire — you have
something which is very much like the psychology- of a
human being, only within a more limited radius and of a
more circumscribed degree. Have we not, therefore, really
got back to what might be termed the "psyche of the
atom"? We have found that the atom is a living entity, a
little vibrant world, and that within its sphere of influence
other little lives are to be found, and this very much in
the same sense as each of us is an entity, or positive nucleus
of force or life, holding within our sphere of influence other-
lesser lives, i.e., the cells of our body. What can be said
of us can be said, in degree, of the atom.
Let us extend our idea of the atom a little further, and
touch upon what may be fundamentally the cause, and
hold the solution of the world problems. This concept of
the atom as a positive demonstration of energy, holding
within its range of activity its polar opposite, can be ex-
tended not only to every type of atom, but also to a human
being. We can view each unit of the human family as a
human atom, for in man you have simply a larger atom.
24 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
He is a centre of positive force, holding within the peri-
phery of his sphere of influence the cells of his body; he
shows discrimination, intelligence, and energy. The dif-
ference lies but in degree. He is possessed of a wider con-
sciousness, and vibrates to a larger measure than the little
atom of the chemist.
We might extend the idea still further and consider
a planet as an atom. Perhaps there is a life within the
planet that holds the substance of the sphere and all forms
of life upon it to itself as a coherent whole, and that has a
specific extent of influence. This may sound like a wild
speculation, yet, judging from analogy, there may perhaps
be within the planetary sphere an Entity Whose conscious-
ness is as far removed from that of man as the conscious-
ness of man is from that of the atom of chemistry.
This thought can again be carried still further, till it
includes the atom of the solar system. There, at the heart
of the solar system, the sun, you have the positive centre of
energy, holding the planets within its sphere of influence.
If you have within the atom, intelligence ; if you have within
the human being, intelligence; if you have within the
planet, an Intelligence controlling all its functions,
may it not be logical to extend the idea and predicate
a still greater Intelligence back of that larger atom, the
solar system?
This brings us ultimately to the standpoint which the
religious world has always held, that of there being a God,
or Divine Being. Where the orthodox Christian would
say with reverence, God, the scientist, with equal reverence,
would say, Energy; yet they would both mean the same.
Where the idealistic teacher would speak of the "God with-
in" the human form, others with equal accuracy would
speak of the "energising faculty" of man, which drives him
into activity of a physical, emotional, or mental nature.
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 25
Everywhere are to be found centres of force, and the idea
can be extended from such a force centre as a chemical
atom, on and up through varying grades and groups of such
intelligent centres, to man, and thence to the Life which
is manifesting through the system. Thus is demon-
strated a marvellous and synthesised Whole. St. Paul may
have had something of this sort in mind when he spoke
about the Heavenly Man. By the "body of Christ" he
surely means all those units of the human family who are
held within His sphere of influence, and who go to the
constitution of His body, as the aggregate of the physical
cells form the physical body of the man. What is needed in
these days of religious upheaval is that these fundamental
truths of Christianity should be demonstrated to be
scientific truths. We need to make religion scientific.
There is a very interesting Sanskrit writing, many
thousands of years old, which I am venturing to quote
here. It says :
"Every form on earth, and every speck (atom) in
space, strives in its efforts towards self -formation, and
to follow the model placed for it in the Heavenly Man.
The involution and the evolution of the atom
have all one and the same object: man."
Do you note what a large hope this concept opens out be-
fore us? Not one atom of matter, showing latent intelli-
gence, discrimination, and selective power, but will, in the
course of aeons, reach that more advanced stage of con-
sciousness which we call human. Surely, then, the human
atom may equally be supposed to progress to something
still more widely conscious, and eventually reach the stage
of development of those great Entities whose bodies are
planetary atoms; and for Them, as well, what is there?
Attainment of that all-including state of consciousness
which we call God, or the solar Logos. Surely this teach-
20 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
ing is logical and practical. The old occult injunction
which said to a man "Know thyself, for in thyself is to be
found all that there is to be known," is still the rule for the
wise student. If each one of us would scientifically regard
ourselves as centres of force, holding the matter of our
bodies within our radius of control, and thus working
through and in them, we should have a hypothesis whereby
the entire cosmic scheme could be interpreted. If, as Ein-
stein hints, our entire solar system is but a sphere, colour-
ing is given to the deduction that it, in its turn, may be but
a cosmic atom ; thus we would have a place within a still
larger scheme, and have a centre around which our system
rotates, and in which it is as the electron to the atom. We
have been told by astronomers that our entire system is
probably revolving around a central point in the heavens.
Thus the basic idea which I have sought to emphasize
can be traced all the way up, through the atom of the chem-
ist and physicist, through man, through the energising
Life of a planet, up to the Logos, the deity of our solar sys-
tem, the Intelligence or Life which lies back of all mani-
festation or of nature, and on to some greater scheme in
which even our God has to play His part and to find His
place. It is a wonderful picture if true.
I cannot deal tonight with the different developments
of this intelligence animating all atoms, but I should like
for a moment to take up what is perhaps the method of
their evolution, and this from the human standpoint
( which concerns us the most intimately ) remembering ever
that what is true of any one atom should be true in greater
or less degree of all.
In considering broadly the atoms of the solar system,
including the system itself, there are two things notice-
able: the first is the intense life and activity of the atom
itself, and its internal atomic energy ; and the second is its
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 27
interaction with other atoms — repulsing some and attract-
ing others. Perhaps, then, we may deduce from these facts,
that the method of evolution for every atom is due to two
causes : the internal life of the atom itself, and its inter-
action or intercourse with other atoms. These two stages
are apparent in the evolution of the human atom. The
first was emphasised by the Christ when He said: "the
kingdom of Cod is within you," thus pointing all human
atoms to the centre of life or energy within themselves,
and teaching them that from and through that centre they
must expand and grow. Each one of us is con-
scious of being centred within himself; he considers
everything from his own standpoint, and the outer
happenings are mostly interesting just in so far
as they concern himself. We deal with things as
they affect us personally, and all that occurs to others at
a certain stage of our evolution is important only as it
concerns ourselves. That is the present stage of many, and
is characteristic of the majority ; it is the period of intense
individualism, and that in which the "I" concept is of para-
mount importance. It involves much internal activity.
The second way the human atom grows is through its
interaction with all other atoms, and this is something
which is only just beginning to dawn upon the human
intelligence, and to assume its just importance. We are
only beginning to realise the relative significance of com-
petition and of co-operation, and are on the verge of realis-
ing that we cannot live our life selfishly and apart from the
group in which we find a place; we are commencing to
learn that if our brother is held back, and is not making
progress, and if the other human atoms are not vibrating
as they should, every atom in the body corporate is affected.
None of us will be complete until all other units have
achieved their fullest and most complete development.
28 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
Next week I shall enlarge a little upon this, when I
take up the question of form building. I only seek tonight,
in bringing this lecture to a conclusion, to bring to your
consciousness an appreciation of the place we each hold
in the general scheme, and to enable us to realise the im-
portance of the interaction which goes on between all
atoms. I seek to point out the necessity of finding for
ourselves our place in the group to which we naturally
belong (in which we are as the electrons to the positive
charge) , and of our then proceeding to do our work within
that larger atom, the group.
This makes the entire hypothesis not merely a wild
dream, but a practically useful ideal. If it is true that all
the cells of our bodies, for instance, are the electrons which
we hold coherently together, and if we are the energising
factor within the material form, it is of prime importance
that we recognise that fact, and deal rightly and scientifi-
cally with those forms and their atoms. This involves the
practical care of the physical body and the wise adapta-
tion of all our energy to the work to be done, and to the
nature of our objective ; it necessitates the judicious utili-
sation of that aggregate of cells which is our instrument,
or tool, and our sphere of manifestation. This is some-
thing of which we, as yet, know little. When this thought
is developed, and the human being is recognised as a force
centre, the attitude of people towards their work and mode
of living will be fundamentally altered. The point of view
of the medical world, for instance, will be changed, and
people will study the right methods of utilising energy.
Disease through ignorance, will no longer exist, and
the methods of transmitting force will be studied and fol-
lowed. We shall then be truly intelligent atoms — a thing
we, as yet, are not.
Again, we shall not only be practical in the handling
EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 29
of our material bodies, because Ave understand their con-
stitution, but we shall consciously find our place within
the group, and direct our energy to the benefiting of the
group, and not, as now, to the furthering of our own ends.
Many atoms have not only an internal life of their own,
but also radiate, and as radio-activity is gradually under-
stood, so the study of man as a centre of active radiation
will also come into being. We are standing these days
on the verge of wonderful discoveries; we are nearing a
marvellous synthesis of the thought of the world; we are
advancing towards that period when science and religion
will come to the help of each other, and when philosophy
will add its quota to the understanding of the truth.
The use of the imagination will frequently open up a
wonderful vision, and if this imagination is based on essen-
tials, and starts with a logical hypothesis, perhaps it will
lead us to the solution of some of the mysteries and prob-
lems which are distressing the world now. If things are
to us mysterious and inexplicable, may it not be because
of that great Entity Who is manifesting through our
planet, and Who is working out a definite purpose and
plan, just as you and I may be doing in our lives. At times
we carry our physical vehicle into situations, and bring
about difficulties in connection with it, which are both pain-
ful and distressing ; granted the hypothesis upon which we
are working, it may, therefore, be logical to surmise that
the great Intelligence of our planet is similarly carrying
His entire body of manifestation (which includes the
human family) into situations which are distressing to the
atoms. Surely it may be logical to suppose that the mys-
tery of all we see around us may be hidden in the will and
intelligent purpose of that greater Life, Who works through
our planet as man works through the medium of his physi-
30 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE
cal body, and yet Who is Himself but an atom within a
still larger sphere, which is indwelt by the solar Logos, the
Intelligence Who is the sum total of all the lesser lives.
LECTURE III.
THE EVOLUTION OF FORM, OR GROUP
EVOLUTION.
I want to enlarge tonight upon the basic idea of the
unity of consciousness, or of intelligence, as developed
somewhat in the lecture last week, and to extend the con-
cept still further. It has been said that all evolution pro-
ceeds from homogeneous, through heterogeneity, back
again to homogeneity, and it has been pointed out that:
"Evolution is a continually accelerating march of
all the particles of the universe which leads them sim-
ultaneously, by a path sown with destruction, but
uninterrupted and unpausing, from the material atom
to that universal consciousness in which omnipotence
and omniscience are realised; in a word, to the full
realisation of the Absolute of God,"
This proceeds from those minute diversifications
which we call molecules and atoms up to their aggregate
as they are built into forms ; and continues on through the
building of those forms into greater forms, until you have
a solar system in its entirety. All has proceeded under
law, and the same basic laws govern the evolution of the
atom as the evolution of a solar system. The macrocosm
repeats itself in man, the microcosm, and the microcosm is
again reflected in all lesser atoms.
These remarks and the previous lecture concern them-
selves primarily with the material manifestation of a solar
system, but I shall seek to lay the emphasis in our future
31
32 EVOLUTION OF FORM
talks principally upon what we might call the psychical
evolution, or the gradual demonstration and evolutionary
unfoldment of that subjective intelligence or conscious-
ness which lies behind the objective manifestation.
As usual, we will handle this lecture in four divi-
sions : First, we will take the subject of the evolutionary
process, which, in this particular case is the evolution of
the form, or the group ; then the method of group develop-
ment; next we will consider the stages that are followed
during the cycle of evolution, and finally we will conclude
with an attempt to be practical, and to gather out of our
conclusions some lesson to apply to the daily life.
The first thing necessary for us to do is to con-
sider somewhat the question of what a form really is. If
we turn to a dictionary we will find the word defined as
follows : "the external shape or configuration of a
body." In this definition the emphasis is laid upon its
externality, upon its tangibility and exoteric manifesta-
tion. This thought is also brought out if the root mean-
ing of the word 'manifestation' is carefully studied. It
comes from two Latin words, meaning "to touch or handle
by the hand" (mantis, the hand, and fendere, to touch) , and
the idea then brought to our minds is the triple thought
that that which is manifested is that which can be felt,
contacted, and realised as tangible. Yet in both these in-
terpretations the most vital part of the concept is lost sight
of, and we must look elsewhere for a truer definition. To
my mind, Plutarch conveys the idea of the manifestation
of the subjective through the medium of the objective form
in a much more illuminating way than does the dictionary.
He says : —
"An idea is a being incorporeal, which has no sub-
sistence by itself, but gives figure and form unto shape-
less matter, and becomes the cause of manifestation."
EVOLUTION OF FORM 33
Here you have a most interesting sentence, and one of
real occult significance. It is a sentence which will repay
careful study and consideration, for it embodies a concept
that concerns itself not only with that little manifestation,
the atom of the chemist and the physicist, but of all forms
that are constituted by their means, including the mani-
festation of a human being and of the Deity of a solar
system, that great Life, that all-embracing, universal
Mind, that vibrant centre of energy, and that great enfold-
ing consciousness Whom we call God, or Force, or the
Logos, the Existence Who is expressing Himself through
the medium of the solar system.
In the Christian Bible the same thought is borne out
by St. Paul in a letter to the Church at Ephesus. In the
second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians he says:
"We are his workmanship." Literally, the correct trans-
lation from the Greek is : "We are his poem, or idea," and
the thought in the mind of the apostle is that through the
medium of every human life, or in the aggregate of lives
which compose a solar system, God is, through the form,
whatever it may be, working out an idea, a specific concept,
or detailed poem. A man is an embodied thought, and this
is also the concept latent in the definition of Plutarch. You
have therein first the idea of a selfconscious entity, you
have then to recognise the thought or purpose which that
entity is seeking to express, and finally, you have the body
or form which is the sequential result.
The term Logos, translated as the Word, is frequently
used in the New Testament, in speaking of the Deity. The
outstanding passage in which this is the case is the first
chapter of St. John's Gospel, where the words occur : "In
the beginnig was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God." Let us consider for a minute the
meaning of the expression. Its literal translation is 'the
34 EVOLUTION OF FORM
Word', and it has been defined as "the rendering in objec-
tive expression of a concealed thought." If you take any
noun, or similar word, for instance, and study its objective
significance, you will find that always a definite thought
is conveyed to the mind, involving purpose, intent, or per-
haps some abstract concept. If this same method of study
can be extended to include the idea of the Deity or the
Logos, much light may be gained upon this abstruse ques-
tion of the manifestation of God, the central Intelligence,
by the means of the material form, whether we see Him
manifested through the tiny form of a chemical atom, or
that gigantic physical body of His we call a solar system.
We found in our lecture last week that there was one
thing that could be predicated of all atoms, and that scien-
tists everywhere were coming to recognise one distinguish-
ing characteristic. They have been shown to possess symp-
toms of mind and a rudimentary form of intelligence. The
atom demonstrates the quality of discrimination, of selec-
tive power, and of ability to attract or repulse. It may
seem curious to use the word intelligence in connection
with an atom of chemistry, for instance, but nevertheless
the root meaning of the word embodies this idea perfectly.
It comes from two Latin words : inter, between, and legere
to choose. Intelligence, therefore, is the capacity to think
or choose, to select, and to discriminate. It is, in reality,
that abstract, inexplicable something which lies back of
the great law of attraction and repulsion, one of the basic
laws of manifestation. This fundamental faculty of intel-
ligence characterises all atomic matter, and also governs
the building up of forms, or the aggregation of atoms.
We have earlier dealt with the atom per se, but have
in no way considered its building into form, or into that
totality of forms which we call a kingdom in nature. We
have considered somewhat the essential nature of the atom,
EVOLUTION OF FORM 35
and its prime characteristic of intelligence, and have laid
our emphasis upon that out of which all the different forms
as we know them, are built, all forms in the mineral king-
dom, in the vegetable kingdom, in the animal kingdom, and
in the human. In the sum total of all forms you have the
totality of nature as generally understood.
Let us now extend our idea from the individual forms
that go to the constitution of any of these four kingdoms
of nature, and view them as providing that still
greater form which we call the kingdom itself, and
thus view that kingdom as a conscious unit, forming
a homogeneous whole. Thus each kingdom in nature may
be considered as providing a form through which a con-
sciousness of some kind or grade can manifest. Thus also,
the aggregate of animal forms composes that greater form
which we designate the kingdom itself, and this animal
kingdom likewise has its place within a still greater body.
Through that kingdom a conscious life may be seeking ex-
pression, and through the aggregate of kingdoms a still
greater subjective Life may be seeking manifestation.
In all these kingdoms which we are considering — min-
eral, vegetable, animal and human — we have three factors
again present, provided, of course, that the basis of our
reasoning is correct; first, that the original atom is itself
a life ; secondly, that all forms are built up of a multiplicity
of lives, and thus a coherent whole is provided through
which a subjective entity is working out a purpose ; thirdly,
that the central life within the form is its directing im-
pulse, the source of its energy, the origin of its activity,
and that which holds the form together as a unity.
This thought can be well worked out in connection
with man, for instance. For the purposes of our lecture,
man can be denned as that central energy, life, or intelli-
gence, who works through a material manifestation or
36 EVOLUTION OF FORM
form, this form being built up of myriads of lesser lives.
In this connection a curious phenomenon has been fre-
quently noticed at the time of death; it was brought very
specially to my notice some years ago by one of the ablest
surgical nurses of India. She had for a long time been
an atheist, but had begun to question the ground of her
unbelief after several times witnessing this phenomenon.
She stated to me that, at the moment of death, in several
cases, a flash of light had been seen by her issuing from the
top of the head, and that in one particular case (that of a
girl of apparently very advanced spiritual development
and great purity and holiness of life) the room had ap-
peared to be lit up momentarily by electricity. Again, not
long ago, several of the leading members of the medical
profession in a large middle west city were approached by
an interested investigator, by letter, and asked if they
would be willing to state if they had noted any peculiar
phenomena at the moment of death. Several replied by
saying that they had observed a bluish light issuing from
the top of the head, and one or two added that they had
heard a snap in the region of the head. In this last instance
we have a corroboration of the statement in Ecclesiastes,
where the loosing of the silver cord is mentioned, or the
breaking of that magnetic link which unites the indwelling
entity or thinker to his vehicle of expression. In both the
types of cases above mentioned can apparently be seen an
ocular demonstration of the withdrawal of the central light
or life, and the consequent disintegration of the form, and
the scattering of the myriad lesser lives.
It may therefore seem to some of us a logical hypo-
thesis that just as the atom of chemistry is a tiny sphere,
or form, with a positive nucleus, which holds rotating
around it the negative electrons, so all forms in all the
kingdoms of nature are of a similar structure, differing
EVOLUTION OF FOKM 37
only in degree of consciousness or intelligence. We can
therefore regard the kingdoms themselves as the physical
expression of some great subjective life, and can by logi-
cal steps come to the recognition that every unit in the
human family is an atom in the body of that greater unit
who has been called in some of the Scriptures the "Heaven-
ly Man." Thus we arrive finally at the concept that the
solar system is but the aggregate of all kingdoms and all
forms, and the Body of a Being Who is expressing Him-
self through it, and utilising it in order to work out a def-
inite purpose and central idea. In all these extensions of
our final hypothesis, the same triplicity can be seen; an
informing Life or Entity manifesting through a form, or a
multiplicity of forms, and demonstrating discriminative
intelligence.
It is not possible to deal with the method where-
by the forms are built up, or to enlarge upon the
evolutionary process by means of which atoms are com-
bined into forms, and the forms themselves collected into
that greater unit which we call a kingdom in nature. This
method might be briefly summed up in three terms —
involution, or the involving of the subjective life in matter,
the method whereby the indwelling Entity takes to itself
its vehicle of expression; evolution, or the utilisation of
the form by the subjective life, its gradual perfecting, and
the final liberating of the imprisoned life ; and the law of
attraction and repulsion, whereby matter and spirit are
co-ordinated, whereby the central life gains experience,
expands its consciousness, and, through the use of that
particular form attains self-knowledge and self-control.
All is carried forward under this basic law. In every
form you have a central life, or idea, coming into manifes-
tation, involving itself more and more in substance, cloth-
ing itself in a form and shape adequate to its need and re-
38 EVOLUTION OF FORM
quirement, utilising that form as a means of expression,
and then — in due course of time — liberating itself from the
environing form in order to acquire one more suited to its
need. Thus through every grade of form, spirit or life pro-
gresses, until the path of return has been traversed, and
the point of origin achieved. This is the meaning of evolu-
tion and here lies the secret of the cosmic incarnation.
Eventually spirit frees itself from form, and attains libera-
tion plus developed psychical quality and graded expan-
sions of consciousness.
We might look at these definite stages, and
study them very cursorily. We have in the first
case the process of involution. This is the period in
which the limiting of the life within the form or sheath
proceeds, and it is a long slow process, covering millions
upon millions of years. This great cycle is participated
in by every type of life. It concerns the life of the Solar
Logos manifesting through a solar system. It is part of
the life cycle of the planetary Spirit manifesting through
such a sphere as our Earth planet; it includes that life
which we call human, and sweeps into the path of its en-
ergy the tiny life which functions through an atom of
chemistry. It is the great process of becoming, and that
which makes existence and being itself possible. This
period of limitation, of a gradually increasing imprison-
ment, and of an ever deeper descent into matter, is suc-
ceeded by one of adaptation, in which the life and the form
become intimately inter-related, and subsequent to this is
the period wherein that inner relation becomes perfected.
The form is then adequate to the needs of the life, and can
be utilised. Then, as the life within grows and expands,
it is paralleled by the crystallisation of the form, which no
longer suffices as a means of expression. Following upon
crystallisation, we have the period of disintegration. Limi-
EVOLUTION OF FORM 39
tation, adaptation, utilisation, crystallisation, and dis-
integration,—these are the stages which cover the life of
any entity, or embodied idea of greater or less degree,
which seeks expression through matter.
Let us carry out this thought in connection with the
human being. The process of limitation can be seen in the
taking of a physical form, and in those early rebellious
days, when a man is full of desires, aspirations, longings
and ideals, which he seems unable to express or to satisfy.
Then comes the period of adaptation, wherein the man be-
gins to utilise what he has, and to express himself as best
he may through the medium of those myriads of lesser
lives and intelligences which constitute his physical, his
emotional, and his mental bodies. He energises his three-
fold form, forcing it to carry out his behests and fulfil his
purposes, and thus carry out his plan, whether for good
or evil. This is succeeded by the stage in which he utilises
the form as far as in him lies, and comes to what we call
maturity. Finally, in the later stages of life, we have the
crystallisation of the form, and the man's realisation of its
inadequacy. Then comes the happy release which we call
death, that great moment in which the "spirit in prison"
escapes from the confining walls of its physical form. Our
ideas about death have been erroneous; we have looked
upon it as the great and ultimate terror, whereas in reality
it is the great escape, the entrance into a fuller measure
of activity, and the release of the life from a crystallised
vehicle and an inadequate form.
Thoughts similar to these can be worked out in con-
nection with all forms, and not only with those in connec-
tion with the physical body of a human being. These ideas
can be applied to forms of government, forms of religion,
and forms of scientific or philosophical thought. It can be
seen working out in a peculiarly interesting manner in
40 EVOLUTION OF FORM
this cycle in which we live. Everything is in a state of
flnx; the old order changeth, and a period of transition is
in progress ; the old forms, in every department of thought,
are disintegrating, but only in order that the life which
gave them being may escape, and build for itself that which
will be more satisfactory and adequate. Take, for in-
stance, the old religious form of the Christian faith. Here
I must warn you not to misunderstand me. I am not try-
ing to prove that the spirit of Christianity is inadequate,
and I am not seeking to demonstrate that its well-tried
and well-proven truths are erroneous. I am only trying
to point out that the form through which that spirit seeks
to express itself has somewhat served its purpose, and is
proving a limitation. Those same great truths, and those
same basic ideas, require a more adequate vehicle through
which to function. Christian thinkers at this time need to
distinguish very carefully between the vital truths of
Christianity, and the crystallised form of theology. The
living impulse was given by the Christ. He enunciated
these great and eternal truths, and sent them forth to take
form and meet the need of a suffering world. They were
limited by the form, and there came a long period where-
in that form (religious dogmas and doctrines) gradually
grew and took shape. Centuries ensued wherein the form
and the life seemed adapted to each other, and the Christ-
ian ideals expressed themselves through the medium of
that form. Now the period of crystallisation has set in,
and the expanding Christian consciousness is finding the
limitations of the theologians inadequate and restricting.
The great fabric of dogmas and doctrines, as built up by
the churchmen and theologians of the ages, must inevitably
disintegrate, but only in order that the life within may
escape, build for itself a better and more satisfactory
EVOLUTION OF FORM 41
means of expression, and thus measure up to the mission
upon which it was sent.
In the different schools of thought everywhere the
same thing can be seen. All of them are expressing some
idea by means of a particular form, or set of forms, and
it is very necessary for us to remember that the triple life
back of all forms is nevertheless but One, though the
vehicles of expression are diverse, and ever prove inade-
quate as time elapses.
What, then, is the purpose back of this endless process
of form building, and this combining of the lesser
forms? What is the reason of it all, and Avhat will prove
to be the goal? Surely it is the development of quality,
the expansion of the consciousness, the development of the
faculty of realisation, the production of the powers of the
psyche, or the soul, the evolution of intelligence. Surely
it is the gradual demonstration of the basic idea or purpose
which that great Entity Whom we call the Logos, or God,
is working out through the solar system. It is the demon-
stration of His psychic quality, for God is intelligent Love ;
and the fulfilment of His determined purpose, for God is
intelligent loving Will.
For all the different grades and types of atoms there
is a goal and a purpose also. There is a goal for the atom
of chemistry ; there is a point of achievement for the human
atom, man ; the planetary atom also will some day demon-
strate its basic purpose, and the great Idea which lies back
of the solar system will some day be revealed. Is it pos-
sible for us in a few brief moments of study to get a sound
conception of what that purpose may be? Perhaps we can
get some broad, general idea, if we approach the subject
with sufficient reverence and sensitiveness of outlook, bear-
ing carefully in mind always that only the ignorant dog-
42 EVOLUTION OF FORM
matise, and only the unwise deal in detail when consider-
ing these stupendous topics.
We have seen that the atom of chemistry, for instance,
demonstrates the quality of intelligence; it shows symp-
toms of discriminative mind, and the rudiments of selective
capacity. Thus the tiny life within the atomic form is
demonstrating psychic quality. The atom is then built
into all the different forms at varying times and stages,
and each time it gains somewhat according to the force
and life of the entity who ensouls that form, and preserves
its homogeneity. Take, for instance, the atom that goes
to the building of a form in the mineral kingdom ; it shows
not only discriminative selective mind, but elasticity.
Then in the vegetable kingdom these two qualities appear,
but a third is also found, which we might call sensation of
a rudimentary kind. The initial intelligence of the atom
has acquired something during the transition from form
to form and from kingdom to kingdom. Its responsiveness
to contact, and its general awareness have increased.
When we come to the study of the evolution of conscious-
ness we can take this up in greater detail; all I am en-
deavouring to do tonight is to show that in the vegetable
kingdom forms built up of atoms show not only discrimi-
native intelligence and elasticity, but also are capable of
sensation, or of that which, in the vegetable kingdom, cor-
responds to emotion or feeling, emotion being but rudi-
mentary love. Next we have the animal kingdom, in which
the animal forms show not only all the above qualities, but
to them is added instinct, or that which will some day blos-
som into mentality. Finally, we come to the human be-
ing, who shows all these qualities in far greater degree,
for the fourth kingdom is but the macrocosm for the three
lower. Man demonstrates intelligent activity, he is capa-
ble of emotion or love, and has added yet another factor,
EVOLUTION OF FORM 43
that of intelligent will. He is the deity of his own little
system; he is not only conscious, but he is selfconscious.
He builds his own body of manifestation, just as does the
Logos, only on a tiny scale; he controls his little system
by the great law of attraction and repulsion, as does the
Logos, and he energises it and synthesises his threefold
nature into a coherent unit. He is the three in one, and
the one in three, just as is the Logos.
There is a future for every atom in the solar system.
Before the ultimate atom there lies a tremendous goal, and
as the aeons slip away the life that animates that atom will
pass through all the varying kingdoms of nature until it
find its goal in the human kingdom.
The idea might now be extended somewhat,
and we might consider that great Entity Who is
the informing life of the planet, and Who holds
all the different kingdoms of nature within His con-
sciousness. May it not be possible that His intelligence,
as it informs the totality of all groups and kingdoms, is
the goal for man, the human atom? Perhaps as time pro-
gresses the scope of his present realisation may also be
ours, and for His, as for all those great Lives Who inform
the planets of the solar system, there may be the attain-
ment of that tremendous reach of consciousness which
characterises that great Existence Who is the ensouling
Life of the solar system. May it not be true that among
the different grades of consciousness, extending, for in-
stance, from the atom of the chemist and physicist, up to
the Logos of the solar system, there are no gaps, and no
abrupt transitions, but there is ever a gradual expansion
and a gradual evolution from one form of intelligent mani-
festation to another, and always the life within the form
gains in quality by means of the experience.
When we have built this idea into our consciousness,
44 EVOLUTION OF FORM
when it is apparent to us that there is purpose and direc-
tion underlying everything, when we realise that not a
single thing occurs that is not the outcome of the con-
scious will of some entity, and that all that happens has
a definite aim and goal, then we have the clue to ourselves,
and to all that we see happening around us in the world.
If, for instance, we realise that we have the building up
and care of our physical bodies, that we have the control
of our emotional nature, and the responsibility for the de-
velopment of our mentality, if we realise that we are the
energising factors within our bodies, and that when we
withdraw from those bodies they disintegrate and fall to
pieces ; then perhaps we have the clue to what the inform-
ing Life of the planet may be doing, as He works through
forms of every kind (continents, civilisations, religions,
and organisations) upon this earth; to what has gone
on in the moon, which is now a disintegrating form, to
what is going on in the solar system, and to what will hap-
pen in the solar system when the Logos withdraws from
that which is, for Him, but a temporary manifestation.
Let us now make practical application of these
thoughts. We are living at this time in a period in which
all the forms of thought seem breaking up, in which the
religious life of the peoples is no longer what it was, in
which dogma and doctrine of every kind come under criti-
cism. Many of the old forms of scientific thought are like-
wise disintegrating, and the foundations of the old philoso-
phies seem to be shaken. Our lot is cast in one of the most
difficult periods of the world's history, a period which is
characterised by the breakup of nations, the smashing of
old relationships and ties, and the apparently imminent
disruption of civilisation. We need to encourage ourselves
by remembering that all this is occurring just because the
life within those forms is becoming so strong that it finds
EVOLUTION OF FOKM 45
them a prison and a limitation ; and we must recollect that
this transition period is the time of the greatest promise
that the world has ever seen. There is no room for pessi-
mism and despair, but only for the profoundest optimism.
Many today are upset and distraught because the founda-
tions seem to be shaken, the carefully reared and deeply
cherished structures of religious thought and belief, and
of philosophical finding seem in danger of falling, yet our
anxiety exists simply because we have been too much en-
grossed with the form, and too much occupied with our
prison, and if disruption has set in, it is only in order that
the life may build for itself new forms and thereby evolve.
The work of the destroyer is as much the work of God as
that of the constructor, and the great god of destruction
has to smash and rend the forms in order that the work
of the builder may become possible, and the spirit able
more adequately to express itself.
To many of us these ideas may seem novel, fantastic,
and untenable. Yet even if they are only hypotheses, they
may prove interesting and give us a possible clue to the mys-
tery. We see civilisations disrupted, we see the religious
fabrics tottering, we see philosophies successfully at-
tacked, we see the foundations of material science shaken.
Yet, after all, what are civilisations? What are the re-
ligions? What are the great races? Simply the forms
through which the great threefold central Life, Who in-
forms our planet, seeks to express Himself. Just as we
express ourselves through the medium of a physical, an
emotional, and a mental nature, so He expresses Himself
through the totality of the kingdoms of nature, and
through the nations, races, religions, sciences and philoso-
phies, in existence at this time. As His life pulsates
through every department of His being we, as cells and
atoms within that greater manifestation, follow each tran-
46 EVOLUTION OF FORM
sition, and are swept along from one stage to another. As
time progresses, and onr consciousness expands, we shall
enter more and more into a knowledge of His plan as He
is working it out, and shall eventually be in a position to
collaborate with Him in His essential purpose.
To sum up the central thought of this lecture: Let
us endeavour to realise that there is no such thing as in-
organic matter, but that every atom is a life. Let us re-
alise that all forms are living forms, and that each is but
the vehicle of expression for some indwelling entity. Let
us seek to comprehend that this is likewise true of the
aggregate of all forms. Thus we have the clue to ourselves,
and perhaps the clue to the mystery of the solar system.
LECTURE IV.
THE EVOLUTION OF MAN, THE THINKER.
This is the fourth in the series of talks which we have
had the past month, and perhaps by means of them we have
been able to get an idea of one of the fundamental prin-
ciples which underly evolution, and which can be seen
working out in the solar system.
Let us first briefly recapitulate, in order that we may
approach our subject tonight with certain ideas clearly
formulated. We have seen that our interpretation of the
processes of nature necessitates a threefold concept, which
concerns itself with the life aspect, with the substance
aspect, and with their close interrelation through the
faculty of intelligence manifesting as consciousness of
some kind or other. This interrelation will produce, final-
ly, the perfected expression (through the medium of mat-
ter) of the conscious purpose of some indwelling entity.
I seek to emphasise the fact that the goal of my endeavour
is to put before you a hypothesis and a suggestion which
may have within it the germ of a possible truth, and which
seems to some of us the clearest way of explaining the mys-
tery of the universe. We have seen that the three parts
of the one great whole are Spirit, or Life, manifesting
through a second factor which we call substance or matter,
and utilising a third factor, which we call the intelligence.
In the gradual synthesis of these three component aspects
of deity can be seen the evolution of consciousness.
47
48 EVOLUTION OF MAN
We next arrived at a more technical discussion of the
subject of substance itself, dealing not with the differ-
entiated substances or elements, but with the concept of a
primordial substance, and endeavouring to get back as far
as possible toward that which has been called by Sir Will-
iam Crookes "protyle", or that which lies back of the tangi-
ble, or objective. We considered the atom, and found that
its latest definition was that it was in reality a unit of
force or energy consisting of a positive charge of electricity
energising a number of negative particles. It became ap-
parent to us that the tiny atom of the chemist and the
physicist was within itself a solar system, with the same
general conformation as the greater system, demonstrating
a similar activity and governed by analogous laws. We
found that it had a central sun, and that around this
central sun, pursuing their definite orbits, might be seen
the electrons. We noted, also, the fact that the elements
differ only according to the number and the arrangement
of these electrons around the central positive charge.
From this we passed on to the consideration of the soul,
or the psyche, of the atom, and found that scientists
recognise the truth that atoms themselves possess quality,
show symptoms of mind or intelligence, and can discrim-
inate, select, and choose.
We then proceeded to weave what appeared to be a
fairytale. We pictured the human being as an atom, and
traced the resemblance of man to an atom ; we found that
he attracted and held within his sphere of influence the
matter of his various bodies, mental, emotional and
physical, in exactly the same way as the electrons were
held revolving around their central focal point. The idea
proved capable of still further expansion, and we turned
our attention to the planet, picturing it as similar in its
nature to the human atom, and to the ultimate atom of
EVOLUTION OF MAN 49
substance, being but the expression of a life manifesting
through a spheroidal form and working out an intelligent
purpose. Then we reached our consummation, and viewed
the solar system as a cosmic atom, energised by the life of
the Logos.
We have, therefore, under consideration, four kinds
of atoms :
First, the atom of the chemist and physicist.
Secondly, the human atom, or man.
Thirdly, the planetary atom, energised by a planetary
Logos, or the Heavenly Man.
Fourthly, the solar atom, indwelt by the solar Logos,
or the Deity.
If we are right in our fundamental concept, if there
is a grain of reality in our hypothesis, and if there is a
substratum of truth in our idea of the atom from which
the elements are compounded, it is to be recognised as a
life working intelligently through the medium of a
form. Then it can perhaps be proven that man is equally
a life or centre of energy, manifesting through his bodies ;
then it can perhaps be demonstrated that a planet is also
the medium of expression of a still greater centre of en-
ergy, and further, under the law of analogy, it may per-
haps be proven at some distant time that there is a God
or central life back of material nature, and an Entity Who
functions consciously through the solar system.
At our last lecture we took up another phase of mani-
festation. We studied the atom itself, and considered it
as it entered into relationship with other atoms, and
through their mutual coherence formed groups or con-
geries of atoms. In other words, we considered the atom
as it was built into the different forms in the various king-
doms of nature, and found that, in the process of evolution,
50 EVOLUTION OF MAN
atoms themselves gravitate towards other and greater
central points, becoming in their turn electrons. Thus,
every form is but an aggregate of smaller lives.
Very briefly then we touched upon the different king-
doms of nature, and traced the development of the soul, or
the psyche in all of them. Of the atom we have already
predicated intelligence, or discriminative power, and we
found that in the building up of forms in the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms what we understand as
sensation begins to appear, and we then have the rudi-
ments of embryonic emotion, or feeling — the physical
plane reflection of love. Thus we have one aspect of the
threefold nature of God, intelligence, demonstrating
through the atom ; and through the form we have the love,
or attractive quality manifesting. This can also be ex-
pressed in the recognition that in these two aspects of the
central divine life you have the third person of the Logoic
Trinity co-operating with the second ; you have the intelli-
gent activity of divinity, or the Holy Spirit aspect, work-
ing in connection with the second aspect, or the Son, Who
is the builder of forms. This is brought out in an inter-
esting manner in Proverbs viii. where Wisdom cries aloud
(Wisdom in the Old Testament representing the Christ
aspect), and after pointing out that He was with God be-
fore ever there was creation, goes on to say that when "He
appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him
as the master worker or builder". Students would do well
to study this chapter in connection with the ideas that we
are here formulating, being careful to ascertain the exact
translation.
We now come to the consideration of our subject for
tonight, that of the evolution of man, the thinker. We
shall see that in man comes in another aspect of divinity.
Browning, in Paracelsus, covers the subject that we have
EVOLUTION OF MAN 51
been considering in a most interesting manner, summing
it up as follows :
"Thus He (God) dwells in all,
To man — the consummation of this scheme
Of being, the completion of this sphere
Of life : whose attributes had here and there
Been scattered o'er the visible world before,
Asking to be combined, dim fragments meant
To be united in some wondrous whole,
Imperfect qualities throughout creation,
Suggesting some one creature yet to make,
Some point where all those scattered rays should meet
Convergent in the faculties of man."
Having therefore discovered two aspects of divinity
in the atom and in the form, we shall find the triplicity
perfected in man. We have been told that man is made in
the image of God, and we would therefore expect to see
him reflecting the threefold nature of the Logos. He must
demonstrate intelligence, he must show forth love, and he
must manifest will. Let us consider some of the defini-
tions of man as found in the dictionary and elsewhere.
The definition found in the Standard Dictionary is a pro-
foundly uninteresting one, and is as follows: — Man is
"an individual of the human race", and then follows a
long list of suggestive derivations of the word man, run-
ning through every known tongue, and concluding with
the statement that many of them are improbable. That
derivation which ascribes the definition of man to the
Sanskrit root 'man', the one who thinks, is to my mind
the most satisfying. Mrs. Besant, in one of her books,
gives an exceptionally clear definition as follows: "Man
is that being in whom highest spirit and lowest matter are
linked together by intelligence." Man is here pictured as
52 EVOLUTION OF MAN
the meeting place for all the three lines of evolution, spirit,
matter, and linking intellect; he is shown to be the one
who unifies the self, the not-self, and the relation between
them, and he is seen to be the knower, that which is known,
and knowledge. What is the purpose of the intellect, or of
knowledge? Surely its purpose is to adapt the material
form to the need and requirements of the indwelling
spirit; surely it is to enable the thinker within the body
to utilise it intelligently, and for some definite purpose;
and surely it exists in order that the central energising
unit may constructively control its negative aspect. We
are all of us entities, ensouling a form, and through the
intelligence endeavouring to utilise that form for a specific
purpose which exists within the conscious will of the true
self.
In a very old occult book — so old that the date of it
cannot be ascertained — can be found a definition of man
which is very illuminating, and in line with the thought
that we are seeking to develop tonight. Man is there de-
fined as : "the Life and the lives." We have seen that the
atom is a life, manifesting by means of the little sphere
of which it is the centre. We have seen that all forms are
an aggregate of lives, built up into the mineral, vegetable,
and animal kingdoms. Now we can pass to the next
stage on this great ladder of evolution, and we will then
find that the human being is the logical sequence that
grows out of all these earlier developments. First, the
primordial stuff, essentially intelligent energy; next,
atomic matter, in all its varying activity forming the
elemental combination; then the form, the aggregate of
these atoms, up to the dweller within the form, who is not
only active intelligence, not only inherent attraction and
love, but is also a purposeful will. This "dweller within"
took possession of the form when it had reached a certain
EVOLUTION OF MAN 53
stage of preparedness, and when the component lives had
reached a certain vibratory capacity; he is now utilising
it, and repeating, within his own sphere of influence, the
work of the atom of matter ; he demonstrates, nevertheless,
not in one way, nor in two, but in three. In man, there-
fore, in deed and in truth, you have what the Christian
would term the "image of God." For, as must be apparent
to all thinkers, the only way in which we can know God
is through the study of His nature, or His psychic quality.
We know that God is intelligence, we know that He is
love, or the great attractive force of the solar system, and
we know that He is the great will or purpose back of all
manifestation. In every Scripture in the world the Deity
is pictured under these three aspects, and manifests
through nature in this triple manner.
The evolution of substance is a thing of gradual
growth; it is in time supplemented by the slow working out
of the inner subjective quality of the life of God, and thus
His essential nature is demonstrated. First, you have one
aspect demonstrating, then another slowly appears, and
finally the third can be seen, and you have the stupendous
combination and consummation, the human being. He
synthesises and blends the three aspects, uniting them in
himself. He is the totality of the divine attributes, though
as yet they are largely embryonic, and he has to repeat
within his cycle of evolution the identical processes that
the atom itself has followed. Just as the atom pursues its
own internal course, and just as it also has later to be
drawn into and to merge and blend with other atoms in
the formation of a group, so the human atom equally has
to find his place within a greater form.
Let us, therefore, consider for a little what is the
method of the evolutionary process for a human being. We
have seen that in him the three lines converge, and that
54 EVOLUTION OF MAN
he is a point of synthesis, with one aspect as yet predomi-
nant, that of the intelligence, with the second aspect of
love-wisdom just beginning to make its presence felt, and
with the highest aspect of spiritual will as yet purely
embryonic.
We have, nearly all of us, been brought up in the be-
lief in what is called "the fall of man". There are few
these days who believe the story of the fall as it is given
in the first chapter of Genesis, and we most of us credit it
as having an allegorical interpretation. What is the occult
truth underlying this curious story? Simply that the truth
about the fall of the spirit into matter is conveyed by
means of a picture to the infant mentality of man. The
process of the converging of these lines is a twofold one.
You have the descent into matter of the entity, of the cen-
tral life, and the incarnation of spirit, and then you have
the working up, out of matter, of that life or spirit, plus
all that has been gained through the utilisation of form.
By experimenting with matter, by dwelling within the
form, by the energising of substance, by the going out of
the Garden of Eden (the place where there is do scope for
necessary development), and by the wandering of the
Prodigal Son in the far country, you have the various
stages which are pictured in the Christian Bible where
man makes the discovery that he is not the form, but that
he is the one who utilises it. He is intelligence, and there-
fore he is made in the image of the third Person of the
Trinity ; he is love, and through him the love aspect of the
Deity will some day perfectly manifest, and he will be able
to say with his elder Brother, the Christ, in reply to the
demand "Lord, show us the Father", that "he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father", for God is Love ; and final-
ly, through him the highest aspect, the will of God, will
EVOLUTION OF MAN 55
become manifest, and he will be perfect, even as his Father
in heaven is perfect.
Just as in the evolution of substance three stages
could be seen,— that of atomic energy, of group coherence,
and of eventual synthesis, — so in the evolution of man will
the same appear. You will have, in the early stages of
human evolution, that which we might call the atomic
stage, in which man comes to a gradual recognition that he
is a selfconscious unit, with an individuality all his own.
Anyone who has brought up children knows that stage
well. It can be seen in that constant utterance of "my, my,
my," the stage of appropriation for himself, with no
thought of any other self. Children are naturally, advis-
edly, and wisely selfish. It is the stage of the gradual
recognition of separative existence, and of the utilisation
ever more potently by the human atom of its own internal
atomic force. The infant human being rebels against the
enforced guardianship of those who seek to protect it, and
considers itself sufficient unto itself. This can be seen
in the individual and the race.
Then, as life goes on, the man passes out of
the atomic stage to a higher and a better one,
when he becomes cognisant of his group relation-
ships, when he becomes aware that he has group responsi-
bilities, and that he has functions to work out with other
separate atoms. The group consciousness begins to make
itself felt. Thus the human atom finds its place within
the group, the larger unit to which it belongs, and the
love aspect begins to show itself. The man has passed out
of the atomic stage into that of group coherence.
Later comes the stage when the man begins to realise
that he has not only responsibilities to the group, but that
there is something greater still. He realises that he is a
part of a great universal life which underlies all groups,
56 EVOLUTION OF MAN
that lie is not just a universal atom, that he is not just
part of a group, but that, after merging his identity with
the group — although never losing it — the group itself has
to be blended again with the consciousness of that great
Identity Who is the synthesis of them all. Thus he ar-
rives at the final stage of intelligent appreciation of divine
unity.
This triple idea can be found summed up in the Bible
in a rather interesting phrase, where Jehovah says to
Moses, the representative man, "I am that I am". If you
split this verse into its three parts you have what I have
been seeking to bring out tonight: First, the atomic
consciousness, I AM ; then the group, I AM THAT ; a con-
sciousness that he is not just a separated individual, not
only a selfcentred unit, not only a self-conscious entity,
but that he is something still greater. Man then reaches
the recognition which will lead him to sacrifice his
identity in the service of the group, and to merge his con-
sciousness in that of the group. Of such a conscious union
we know practically nothing as yet. This is suc-
ceeded by the still greater stage, when I AM THAT I AM
will be for us not an impossible ideal, and a visionary
concept, but a fundamental reality, when man in the aggre-
gate will recognise himself as an expression of the uni-
versal life, and the group consciousness itself will be
merged in that of the Aggregate of all groups.
We suppose, and we hope, that we are passing rapid-
ly out of the atomic stage, and that our sphere of influ-
ence and interest is not bounded by our atomic wall, but that
we are becoming (to use a now familiar term) radio-active.
When this is the case we shall not be circumscribed and
limited within our own shell, and the narrow confines of
our own individual life, but we shall begin to radiate, and
EVOLUTION OF MAN 57
to contact other atoms, thus reaching the second stage, the
attractive.
What, therefore, is the goal ahead for each one of ns?
What is the goal for these different atoms with which we
are concerning ourselves? We are told in some of the
old Eastern Scriptures, that the goal for the atom of sub-
stance is selfconsciousness. What is, therefore, the goal
for the human atom, who is already selfconscious, who is
already individualised, and guiding himself by means of
his will? What lies ahead for man? Simply the expan-
sion of his consciousness to include the consciousness of
the great life, or being, in whose body he is himself a cell.
Our physical body is, for instance, made up of innumerable
lesser lives, or atoms, each one of them separated from its
neighbour, each one of them distinguished by its own in-
herent activity, and each one forming a sphere which holds
within its periphery other lesser spheres or electrons.
We have seen that man is the positive charge, and
holds his multiplicity of atoms, or lesser lives, energised
and bound together into coherent forms. At death, when
the spirit aspect withdraws itself, the form disintegrates,
and is dissolved, and these little conscious lives, having
fulfilled their function, dissipate. The consciousness of
the atom within the body is a very different thing to the
consciousness of a man, and this we can realise with very
little thought. If we concede that man is a cell in a greater
sphere, may it not be possible that there is a conscious-
ness which is to the man what his consciousness is to the
cell in his body? Is it not -possible that we may have ahead
of us the achievement of that consciousness in the same
sense as the atom of substance may some day achieve the
consciousness of a human being? May it not be that this
is what Browning had in his mind when he said : "Man-
kind, made up of all the single men ; in such a synthesis the
58 EVOLUTION OF MAN
story ends." Here he holds up before us a concept of a
greater Man, who is the synthesis or sum total of all the
lesser units. Perhaps that synthesis may be the great Life,
or the planetary Entity Who lies back of our planetary
manifestation, and Who is the sum total of the group con-
sciousness. I suggest that just as self consciousness is the
goal for all the sub-human forms of life, and as group con-
sciousness, or the consciousness of the Heavenly Man, is
the goal for the human being, so for him, also, there may
be a goal, and for him the achievement may be the develop-
ment of God consciousness. So for him comes the struggle
to evolve the realisation which is that of the solar Logos.
Thus can be seen the unity of consciousness from the
most minute atom up to the Deity Himself. Thus opens up
before us a wonderful picture, and a vista of possibility.
Thus may the life of God be seen in its essential triple
manifestation, working out in an ever expanding con-
sciousness; demonstrating in the atom of substance, and
expanding through the medium of form, until it finds one
point of culmination in man, then proceeding on its course
till it demonstrates as the planetary consciousness, which
is the sum total of all the states of consciousness upon
our planet, the earth, until we arrive at the fundamental
basic Life, Who holds all the planetary evolutions syn-
thesised within His greater sphere, the solar system. Thus,
in summing up, we have four states of intelligent activity,
which we might term consciousness, selfconsciousness,
group consciousness, and God consciousness. These dem-
onstrate through four types of atoms, first, the chemical
atom and all atomic forms; secondly, the human atom;
then, the planetary atom, and finally the all-encompassing
solar atom. Ensouling these atomic forms can be seen
manifesting all sub-human types of life, from the life of
the atom of substance to the informing life of the higher
EVOLUTION OF MAN 59
animals, then that life which we call human, that of man,
the thinker; next, the Heavenly Man, and then the great
Life of the solar system, Whom the Christian calls God,
or the Logos.
Browning expresses this idea of the gradual expan-
sion of the consciousness of a human being into something
greater and vaster in the following words :
"When all the race is perfected alike
As man, that is ; all tended to mankind,
And, man produced, all has its end thus far;
But in completed man begins anew
A tendency to God. Prognostics told
Man's near approach; so in man's self arise
August anticipations, symbols, types
Of a dim splendour ever on before
In that eternal circle life pursues.
For men begin to pass their nature's bound,
And find new hopes and cares which fast supplant
Their proper joys and griefs ; they grow too great
For narrow creeds of right and wrong, which fade
Before the unmeasured thirst for good : while peace
Rises within them ever more and more.
Such men are even now upon the earth
Serene amid the half-formed creatures round
Who should be saved by them and joined with them."
LECTURE V.
THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
Last week we studied, very inadequately, the evolution
of man, the thinker, the tenant of the bodies, and the one
who uses them during the cycle of evolution. We saw
that he was the summation of the evolutions which had
preceded him. We led up to our study of that evolution
in two previous lectures in which we considered first the
substance, or atomic matter prior to its building up into
a form, or the tiny atom before it was incorporated in a
vehicle of some kind. Then we studied the building of
forms by means of the great law of attraction, which
gathered the atoms together, causing them to cohere and
vibrate in unison, and thus producing a form, or an aggre-
gation of atoms. We came to the recognition that in atom-
ic substance we had one aspect of the Godhead, of the
Deity, and of the central Force or energy of the solar sys-
tem, manifesting under the aspect of intelligence, and we
saw that in the form aspect of nature another quality of
the Deity became manifest, that of love or attraction, the
cohesive force which holds the form unified. Then we
studied the human being, or man, and noted how in him all
the three divine aspects met ; and recognised man as a cen-
tral will manifesting through a form composed of atoms,
and demonstrating the three qualities of God, that of in-
telligence, of love-wisdom, and of will or power.
Today we are stepping out of the matter aspect of
manifestation which we have been dealing with in the pre-
vious lectures, into the consideration of the consciousness
within the form. We have seen that the atom may be re-
60
EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 61
garded as the central life, manifesting through, a
spheroidal form, and showing the quality of mind ; but the
human atom may also be considered as a central positive
life, utilising a form and demonstrating the different
qualities we have enumerated ; and then we said that, if we
were right in our hypothesis about the atom, if we were
right in considering the human being as an atom, then we
might extend this primary conception to the planet, and
say that within the planetary atom there is a great Life,
manifesting through a form, and showing specific qualities
whilst working out a specified aim; and we extended this
same concept also to the great sphere of the solar system,
and to the Deity Who indwells it.
Let us take up the question of consciousness itself,
and study the problem a little and concern ourselves with
the reaction of the life within the form. If I can thus give
you a few general ideas in line with what has been earlier
said, I shall be able to lay another stone upon the structure
I am endeavouring to build.
The word consciousness comes from two Latin words :
con, with; and scio, to know; and means literally 'that
with which we know'. If you take a dictionary and look
up this word you will find it defined somewhat as follows :
"The state of being aware", or the condition of perceiving,
the ability to respond to stimuli, the faculty of recognising
contacts, and the power to synchronise vibration. All
these phrases might be included in any definition of con-
sciousness, but the one I want to lay emphasis upon this
evening is that which the Standard Dictionary gives, and
which I have earlier quoted. The average thinker who
takes up the majority of the text-books dealing with this
subject, is apt to find them very confusing, for they divide
consciousness and the state of being aware into numerous
divisions and subdivisions, until one is left in a state of
62 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
complete bewilderment. Tonight we will only touch upon
three types of consciousness, which we might enumerate
as follows: Absolute consciousness, universal conscious-
ness, and individual consciousness, and of these three it is
only possible, really, to define two in any way with clarity.
Absolute consciousness, to the ordinary thinker, is
practically impossible of recognition. It has been defined
in one book as, "that consciousness in which everything is,
the possible as well as the actual", and concerns everything
that can be possibly conceived of as having occurred, or
occurring, or going to occur. This is, possibly, absolute
consciousness, and from the standpoint of the human
being is the consciousness of God, Who contains
within Himself the past, the present, and the future.
What, then, is universal consciousness? It might be
defined as consciousness, thinking time and space, con-
sciousness with the idea of location and succession in-
volved within it, or, in reality, group consciousness, the
group itself forming either a greater or a lesser unit.
Finally, individual consciousness may be defined as just
as much of the universal consciousness as a separated
unit can contact and can conceive of for itself.
Now, to understand these vague expressions — abso-
lute, universal, and individual consciousness — it might be
helpful if I endeavoured somewhat to illustrate. It might
be done as follows : In our earlier lectures we have seen
that we must consider the atom in the human body as a
little entity, a tiny, intelligent life, and a microscopic, ac-
tive sphere. Now taking that little cell as our starting
point we may get, by its means, some concept of what these
three types of consciousness are, by viewing them from the
standpoint of the atom and man. Individual consciousness
to the tiny atom in a man's body would be its own vibratory
life, its own internal activity, and all that specifically con-
EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 63
cerns itself. Universal consciousness to the little cell might
be considered as the consciousness of the entire physical
body, viewing it as the unit which incorporates the atom.
Absolute consciousness to the atom might be considered as
the consciousness of the thinking man who is energising the
body. That would be to the atom something so remote to
its own inner internal life as to be practically inconceiv-
able and unknown, yet it nevertheless sweeps into the line
of its will the form and the atom within the form, and all
that concerns them. This idea has only to be extended to
man, considered as an atom or cell within the body of a
great Entity, and one can then work out along similar lines
this conception of a threefold consciousness. It might here
be wise if we were to come down and consider more prac-
tical matters than absolute consciousness.
Occidental science is coming gradually to the con-
clusion of the esoteric philosophy of the East, that con-
sciousness must be predicated not only of the animal and
of the human being, but that it must be recognised also as
extending through the vegetable on into the mineral king-
dom, and that self consciousness must be regarded as the
consummation of the evolutionary growth of consciousness
in the three lower kingdoms. It is not possible in the short
time now at my disposal, to go into that most fascinating
study of the development of consciousness in the animal
kingdom, in the vegetable kingdom, and its appearance al-
so in the mineral kingdom; we should find, should we do
so, that even minerals show symptoms of awareness, of re-
action to stimuli ; that they manifest signs of fatigue, and
that it is possible to poison a mineral and to murder it,
much as you can murder a human being. The fact that
flowers have consciousness is being more readily rec-
ognised, and articles of very deep interest have been pub-
lished on the consciousness of plants, opening up a very
64 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
wide range of thought. We have seen that in atomic
matter the only thing that we can safely predicate is that
it shows intelligence, the power to select, and to discrim-
inate. This is the predominant feature of consciousness
as it manifests through the mineral kingdom. In the vege-
table kingdom another quality appears, that of sensation
or feeling of a rudimentary nature. It is responsive in a
different way to the mineral. In the animal kingdom a
third reaction appears; not only is the animal showing-
signs of sensation in greatly increased degree to the similar
response in the vegetable kingdom, but it also shows signs
of intellect, or embryo mind. Instinct is a recognised
faculty of all animal units, and the word comes from the
same root as the word "instigate." When the power to
instigate begins within any animal form it is a sign that
an embryo mentality is beginning to manifest. In all these
kingdoms you have different grades and types of conscious-
ness showing themselves, whilst in man you have
the first symptoms of selfconsciousness, or the faculty
in man whereby he becomes aware that he is a separated
identity, that he is the indwelling impulse within the body,
and the one who is in process of becoming aware by means
of these bodies. This has been long taught in the East, and
"esoteric philosophy teaches that everything lives and is
conscious, but that not all life and consciousness is similar
to the human", and it also emphasises the fact that "vast
intervals exist between the consciousness of the atom and
of the flower, between that of a flower and a man, between
that of a man and a God." As Browning has said : "In
man begins anew a tendency to God." He is not a God
yet, but a God in the making ; he is working out the image
of God, and will some day produce it in perfection. He is
the one who is seeking to demonstrate the subjective,
divine, threefold life through the medium of the objective.
EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 65
The method of the evolutionary development of con-
sciousness in a human being is but a repetition on a higher
turn of the spiral, of the two stages which we noted in the
evolution of the atom, that of atomic energy and of group
coherence. In the world at present can be seen the human
family at the atomic stage of manifestation, leading on to
a goal not yet achieved, the group stage.
If there is one thing apparent to all of us who are in
any way interested in the faculty of awareness, and who
are in the habit of noting that which passes around us, it
is that of the different grades of mentality which we meet
everywhere, and the different types of consciousness among
men. We meet people who are alert, alive, aware of all
that is going on, keenly conscious, responsive to thought
currents of various kinds in human affairs, and conscious
of contacts of every kind ; then we meet people who seem to
be asleep ; there is apparently so little that interests them ;
they seem utterly unaware of contact; they are yet in a
stage of inertia, and are not capable of responding to much
outer stimuli ; they are not mentally alive. One notices it,
also, in children; some respond so quickly, while others
we call stupid. It is not really that one is more or less
essentially stupid than another; it is simply due to the
inner stage of evolution of the child, to its more frequent
incarnations, and the longer period that it has been oc-
cupied in becoming aware.
Let us now take the two stages, the atomic and the
form stage, and see how the consciousness of the human
being develops, bearing ever in mind that in the human
atom is stored up all that has been gained in the earlier
stages in the three lower kingdoms of nature. Man is the
gainer by that vast evolutionary process which lies behind
him. He starts with all that has been gained therein latent
within him. He is selfconscious, and has before him a
66 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
definite goal, the attainment of group consciousness. For
the atom of substance the goal had been the attainment of
selfconsciousness. For the human being the goal is a
greater Consciousness, and a wider range of awareness.
The atomic stage which we are now considering is, for
us, a peculiarly interesting one, because it is the stage in
which the majority of the human family find themselves.
In it we pass through the period (a most necessary one)
of self-centredness, that cycle in which the man is prin-
cipally concerned with his own affairs, with that which
primarily interests him, and lives his own intense, internal,
vibratory life. For a long period back of us, and perhaps
at the present stage, (for I do not believe that many of
us would feel insulted if we were not regarded as having
attained perfection, or having achieved the goal) we are
most of us intensely selfish, and only mentally interested
in the things that are going on in the world, and then prob-
ably because our hearts are touched, and ive do not like
being uncomfortable, or we are interested because it is the
fashion ; and yet, in spite of this mental attitude, our whole
attention is focussed upon the things which concern our
own individual life. We are in the atomic stage, intense-
ly active in connection with our own personal problems.
Watch the throngs in the streets of any great city, and
you will see everywhere people in the atomic stage, centred
entirely in themselves, occupied only with their own busi-
ness, intent upon their own pleasure getting, desirous only
of having a good time, and only incidentally occupied with
affairs which concern the group. This is a necessary and
protective stage, and one of essential value to every unit
of the human family. The realisation of this, therefore,
will surely lead us all to be patient with our brothers and
sisters who may so often irritate us.
What are the two factors whereby we evolve in and
EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 67
out of the atomic stage. In the Orient for many ages the
method of evolution has been regarded as a twofold one.
A man has been taught that he evolves and becomes aware
first by means of the five senses, and later through the de-
velopment of the faculty of discrimination, coupled with
dispassion. Here in the West we have primarily empha-
sised the five senses, and have not taught that discrimina-
tion which is so essential. If you watch the development
of a little child you will become aware, for instance, that
a baby develops the five senses in a certain ordered se-
quence, usually. The first sense it develops is hearing;
it will move its head when there is a noise. Then the next
sense to be noted is that of touch, and it begins to feel about
with its little hands. The third sense which seems to
awaken is that of sight. I do not mean by this that a baby
cannot see, or that it is born blind, like a kitten, but it
is often several weeks before a baby consciously sees and
looks with recognition. The faculty has always been there,
but there has been no realisation. So it is with the graded
expansions of consciousness and realisations that lie ahead
of man today. In these three paramount, or major senses,
hearing, touch, and sight, you have a very interesting
analogy to, and connection with the threefold manifesta-
tion of Deity, the self, the not-self, and the relation be-
tween. The self, occultly, hears and responds to vibra-
tion, thus realising Itself. It becomes aware of the not-
self, and of its tangibility, through touch, but it is only
when sight or conscious recognition comes in that the re-
lation between the two is established. Two more senses
are utilised by the self in making its contacts, those of
taste and smell, but they are not so essential to the de-
velopment of intelligent awareness as are the other three.
Through these five senses we make every contact that it
is possible to make upon the physical plane ; through them
68 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
we learn, we grow, we become aware, and we develop;
through them all the great instincts are evolved; they are
the great protective senses, not only enabling us to con-
tact our environment, but also protecting us from that
environment.
Having, then, learnt to be intelligent units by means of
these five senses, and having, through their medium, ex-
panded our consciousness, we reach a certain crisis, and
another factor comes in, that of intelligent discrimina-
tion. Here I am referring to the discrimination which a
self conscious unit demonstrates. I refer to that conscious
choice which you and I evidence, and which we will be
forced to utilise as the power of evolution drives us on
to the point where we will learn to distinguish between
the self and the not-self, between the real and the unreal,
between the life within the form, and the form which it
uses, between the knower and that which is known. Here
we have the whole object of evolution, the attainment of
the consciousness of the real self through the medium of
the not-self.
We pass through a long period or cycle of many
lives, wherein we identify ourselves with the form,
and are so one with the not-self that we recognise no dif-
ference, being entirely occupied with the things which are
transient and impermanent. It is this identification with
the not-self which leads to all the pain, dissatisfaction,
and sorrow in the world, and yet we must remember that
through this reaction of the self to the not-self we inevita-
bly learn, and finally break loose from the impermanent
and the unreal. This cycle of identification with the un-
real parallels the stage of individual consciousness. As
the atom of substance has to find its way into some form,
and add its quota of vitality to a greater unit, so through
the evolutionary development of consciousness the human
EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 69
atom has likewise to reach a point where it recognises its
place in a greater Whole, and shoulders its responsibility
in group activity. This is the stage which a great num-
ber of the human family are now approaching. Men are
realising, as never before, the difference between the real
and the unreal, between the permanent and the imper-
manent; through pain and suffering they are awakening
to the recognition that the not-self suffices not, and they
are searching without and also within, for that which will
more adequately meet their needs. Men are seeking to
understand themselves, to find the kingdom of God with-
in themselves, and through Mental Science, New Thought,
and the study of psychology they will arrive at certain
realisations which will prove invaluable to the human
race. The indication is therefore to be found that the
form stage is rapidly approaching, and that men are pass-
ing out of the atomic period into something infinitely bet-
ter and greater. Man is beginning to sense the vibration
of that greater Life within Whose body he is but as an
atom, and he is commencing, in a small way, to make a
conscious response to that greater call, and to find possible
channels whereby he can understand that greater Life
which he senses, but as yet does not know. If he persists
in this, he will find the group to which he belongs, and
will then change his centre. No longer will he be limited
by his own little atomic wall, but he will pass beyond it,
and become, in his turn, a conscious, active, intelligent
part of the greater whole.
And how is this change brought about? The atomic
stage was developed by means of the five senses, and
through the utilisation of the faculty of discrimination.
The stage at which a man awakens to group realisation,
and becomes a conscious participant in the activities of
the group, is brought about in two ways, through medi-
70 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
tation, and through a series of initiations. Now when I
use the word "meditation" I do not mean what is perhaps
usually understood by that word, a negative, receptive,
state of mind, or a state of trance. There is much miscon-
ception these days as to what meditation really is, and
there is a great deal of so called meditation which has
been truly described by a person not so long ago, as "I
shut my eyes, and open my mouth, and wait for something
to happen." The true meditation is something that re-
quires the most intense application of the mind, the utmost
control of thought, and an attitude which is neither nega-
tive nor positive, but an equal balance between the two.
In the Eastern Scriptures the man who is attempting medi-
tation and achieving its results, is described as follows —
and from a consideration of these words may come much
help and illumination to us : "The Maha Yogi, the great
ascetic, in whom is centred the highest perfection of aus-
tere penance and abstract meditation, by which the most
unlimited powers are attained, marvels and miracles are
worked, the highest spiritual knowledge is acquired, and
union with the great Spirit of the universe is eventually
attained." Here this union with the group life is held to
be the product of meditation, and there is no other method
of attainment.
True meditation (of which the preliminary stages are
concentration upon and application to any particular line
of thought) will differ for different people and different
types. The religious man, the mystic, will centre his at-
tention upon the life within the form, upon God, upon
Christ, or upon that which embodies for him the ideal.
The business man, or the professional man, who, during
his hours of work, is one-pointedly centred upon the mat-
ter he has on hand, and who keeps his attention fixed up-
on the particular problem he has to solve, is learning to
EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 71
meditate. Later on, when he comes to the more spiritual
aspect of meditation, he will find that he has covered the
hardest part of the road. The person who is reading a
difficult book, and reads with the full force and power of
his brain, getting at that which lies behind the written
word, may be meditating as much as it is possible for him
to meditate at this time. I say this for our encourage-
ment, because we live in a cycle in which books about medi-
tation are written, and many schools of meditation are
found. All of them embody some aspect of the truth, and
may be doing much good, but they may not embody that
which is best for any particular individual. We need to
find our own way of concentrating, to ascertain our own
method of approach to that which lies within, and to study
for ourselves this question of meditation.
I would like here to sound a word of warning. Avoid
those schools and methods which combine forms of breath-
ing exercises with meditation, which teach different types
of physical postures, and teach their students to centre
their attention upon physical organs or centres. Those
who follow these methods are heading towards disaster,
and apart from the physical dangers involved, and the risk
of insanity and nervous disorders, they are occupying
themselves with the form, which is limitation, and not
with the spirit, which is life. The goal will not be achieved
that way. For most of us the intellectual concentration
which results in mind control, and the ability to think
clearly and to think only that which we wish to think,
must precede true meditation, which is a thing few people
know much about. This true meditation, which it is im-
possible for me to enlarge upon here, will result in a
definite change of polarisation, will open up to man ranges
of experiences undreamt of hitherto, will reveal to him
contacts that as yet he does not realise, and will enable
72 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
him to find his place within the group. He will be no
longer confined by the wall of his personal life, but will
begin to merge that life within the greater whole. He
will no longer be occupied with the things of selfish inter-
est, but will give his attention to the problems of the group.
He will no longer give his time to the culture of his own
identity, but will seek to understand that greater Identity
of which he is a part. This is really what all advanced
men are beginning more or less to do. Little as the aver-
age man may realise it, great thinkers, such as Edison and
others, arrive at a solution of their problems along the line
of meditation. By a brooding concentration, by a con-
stant recollection, and by strenuous application to the
particular line of thought which interests them, they pro-
duce results, they tap the inner reservoirs of inspiration
and of power, and bring down from the higher levels of
the mental plane results which benefit the group. When
we ourselves have done a certain amount of work along the
line of meditation, when we are cultivating group interest
and not self interest, when we have developed physical
bodies that are strong and clean, and emotional bodies that
are controlled, and not swayed by desire, when we have
mental bodies that are our instruments and not our mas-
ters, then we shall know the true meaning of meditation.
When a man has made his contact through meditation
with the group to which he belongs, and becomes, there-
fore, ever more and more group conscious, he is then in a
position to take what are called a series of initiations.
These initiations are simply expansions of consciousness,
brought about with the help of Those Who have already
achieved the goal, Who have already identified Themselves
with the group, and Who are a conscious part of the body
of the Heavenly Man. With Their assistance, and through
EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 73
Their aid, a man will gradually awaken to the realisation
that is Theirs.
There is great interest everywhere today in this sub-
ject of initiation, and an over-emphasis has been laid upon
its ceremonial aspect. We need to remember that every
great unfoldment of consciousness is an initiation. Every
step forward along the path of awareness is an initiation.
When an atom of substance was built into the form, it was
for that atom an initiation. It became aware of another
type of force, and its range of contact became wider. When
the consciousness of the vegetable and animal kingdom
merged, and the life passed from the lower kingdom into
the higher, that was an initiation. When the consciousness
of the animal expanded into that of the human being, still
another great initiation took place. All the four kingdoms
have been entered by an initiation, or through an expan-
sion of consciousness. Ahead of the human family lies
now the fifth, or spiritual kingdom, and it is likewise en-
tered through a certain initiation, as can be seen by those
who intelligently read their New Testament. And in all
these cases these initiations have been brought about by
the help of Those who already know. Thus we have within
the evolutionary scheme not great gaps between one king-
dom and another, and between one state of awareness and
another, but a gradual development of consciousness, and
one in which we, each one of us, have had and will have our
share. If we can remember this universality of initiation
w e shall have a better proportioned point of view in connec-
tion with it. Every time that we become more aware of our
environment, and our mental content is increased, it is an
initiation on a tiny scale. Every time our horizon widens,
and we think and see more broadly, it is an initiation, and
herein to us lies the value of life itself, and the greatness
of our opportunity.
74 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
One point I wish to make here is this: every
initiation has to be self -initiated. That final stage when
definite help is brought to us from outside sources is not
achieved because there are great Beings anxious to help
us, Who come to us where we are and seek to lift us. It
comes to us because we have done the necessary work, and
nothing can stop it coming. It is our right. Those who
have achieved can and will and do aid and assist us, but
Their hands are tied until we have done our share of the
undertaking. Nothing therefore that we do to increase
our usefulness in the world, no steps that we take to build
better bodies, no effort that we make to gain selfcontrol
and to equip our mental body, is ever lost; it is all some-
thing which we are adding to the total we are piling up,
which will some day bring us to a great revelation, and
every hourly, daily effort that we make, swells the tide of
energy which will sweep us to the portal of initiation. The
meaning of the word "initiation" is to "to go into." It
means simply that an initiate is one who has taken the
first steps into the spiritual kingdom, and has had the first
series of spiritual revelations, each one of which is a key
to a still greater revelation.
LECTURE VI.
THE GOAL OF EVOLUTION.
In using such a title as the Goal of Evolution, I feel
extremely diffident ; I realise that the only thing I can pos-
sibly attempt is to put certain suppositions before you,
drawing upon my imagination. Naturally it is not pos-
sible for finite mind to accurately gauge the plan of the
Deity. All that we can do is to study the history of the
past, to investigate present conditions, and to ascertain
somewhat racial and natural tendencies, and thus follow,
as logically as may be, the various steps and stages. All
that is permissible for us is to start from the solid basis
of acquired facts and knowledge, then put them all to-
gether, and from their aggregate form an hypothesis as to
what may be the possible goal. Beyond that it is impos-
sible to go.
In our talks upon evolution, as I mentioned in the
first lecture, we have been dealing somewhat with sup-
positions, and concerning ourselves with possibilities.
Certain things we do know, and certain truths have been
ascertained; yet even the facts of science, for instance,
such as were so much spoken of and insisted upon forty
years ago, are no longer regarded as facts, and are not
used or promulgated as drastically and as emphatically
as they were. Science itself is finding every year that its
knowledge is very relative. The more a man grasps and
knows, the greater is the horizon which opens up before
him. Scientists are now venturing into what are the
subtler planes of matter, and therefore into the realms of
the unproven, and we should remember that, up till the
present, science has refused to admit their existence. We
75
76 THE GOAL
are passing bey ond the sphere of what has been called "solid
matter", into such reams as are inferred when we speak
about "centres of energy", "negative and positive force",
and "electrical phenomena" ; and the emphasis is being laid
more and more upon quality rather than upon what has
been called substance. The further we look ahead, the
wider our speculations become, and the more we attempt
to account for telepathic, psychic and other phenomena,
the more we shall trespass into the realm of what is now
the subjective and the subconscious, and the more we shall
be forced to express ourselves in terms of quality or of
energy.
If Ave succeed at all in accounting for that which is
unusual, for that which is as yet inexplicable to us, and
in ascertaining the reality of the occult, we shall bring
about a condition which might almost be called paradox-
ical. We shall gradually make the subjective the objec-
tive.
Let us again briefly sum up the substance of the talks
we have had during the past few weeks, and thus start
with our ideas clarified. We dealt first with the atom of
substance, and found that that atom was a centre of force ;
that it was of electrical origin, being the conjunction of a
form of negative and positive energy, and that it showed
psychic quality; we found it demonstrating selective
capacity and discrimination. We then saw how the atom
was gradually built up into differing forms ; that these
forms were distinguished by another quality to that of the
atom, which we called attraction, response to sensation,
and in reality a recognition of duality. In these two, the
atom, and the form composed of atoms, we had two of the
aspects of the Godhead manifested. We saw that the active
intelligence, or the mind aspect of Deity, shows itself as
the discriminating faculty, and that the second aspect
THE GOAL 77
shows itself as that cohesive attractive power which holds
the form together. Next we found that man is the sum-
mation of the two previous developments of the divine
life, combining atomic substance into form, whilst mani-
festing a third factor, that of intelligent purpose or will.
That central will is the real man, the spiritual entity, who
uses the form for purposes of his own. Man therefore
embodies all the three aspects of the Godhead, and is
verity and in truth made in the image of God. He is a
synthesis. The life of the third Person in the Godhead,
showing as intelligence, animates the substance of his
bodies; the life of the second aspect, revealing that God
is attractive love, is the force which builds up the
atoms into the forms which he occupies, whilst he in es-
sence is the will or spirit aspect. In him, therefore, pul-
sates the life of God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit.
Having traced the different lines of evolution until
they meet in man we proceeded to weave romances and
to expand our ideas into something greater. We consid-
ered the sphere of the planet, and we said that it might
perhaps be a logical hypothesis to posit that within that
great atom, a planet, there might be— animating it and
working through it— a Life that is expressing itself in
and through and by that planet. From the planet we
leapt to the solar system, and we saw that, if it were logical
to deduce such facts concerning the planet, it might be
equally logical to say that the solar system is a cosmic
atom, a vast spheroidal form, animated by a central LIFE,
which is working out, by means of that form, an ultimate
purpose.
Having therefore dealt with the atom of substance,
with the human atom, with the planetary atom, and with
the cosmic atom, we left the discussion of the objective
78 THE GOAL
side of manifestation, and our speculations as to the nature
of that which indwelt the form, and proceeded in our lec-
ture last week to take up the subject of consciousness, of
the evolution of the life within the form, and of the con-
tacts made by means of it. We said that for each of these
atoms there was a specific goal, that for the atom of sub-
stance there was the goal of self -consciousness ; that all
forms are conscious, but that all forms are not self-con-
scious, and that between man and the animal there was a
profound distinction marking the difference between con-
sciousness, and that self-consciousness which becomes pos-
sible when the spirit or will aspect of divinity indwells the
form. For man there is a still greater consciousness or
realisation to be achieved, which we call group-conscious-
ness. Logically, then, we had to predicate for the plane-
tary Deity of our Earth a further stage of unfoldment
which we called God-consciousness, or the realisation of
that Life which informs the entire sphere of the solar sys-
tem, which is the goal for the planetary spirit. Finally we
saw that there may be a still vaster stage of realisation
to be compassed by the solar Logos, functioning through
His solar system along some cosmic line inconceivable to
us.
The subject that I am going to consider now is one
that affects us very closely : namely, the attainment by man
of that group consciousness which is his goal, and the ex-
pansions of his little consciousness until it measures up
to that greater one which enfolds it. You will remember
that in trying to explain the difference between self con-
sciousness, group consciousness, and God consciousness, I
illustrated it by pointing out that in the little atom of
substance in the physical body, that tiny centralised life
which goes to the constitution of the human form, we had
a correspondence to the self-consciousness of the human
THE GOAL 79
being ; that the life of the physical body, considering it in
every one of its departments as a whole, is to that little
self contained cell what group consciousness is to us; and
that the consciousness of the real man, the informing en-
tity within the body, is to that atom what God conscious-
ness is to us, as inexplicable and as far removed. If we
can extend this concept of the atom in our body and its
relation to man, the thinker, to the human atom, regard-
ing it as a unit within a still greater body, we may get an
understanding of the radical difference between these
three rays of consciousness.
There is a very interesting analogy between the evolu-
tion of the atom and of man (and I presume therefore of
the planetary Deity and the solar Logos ) in the two meth-
ods of unfoldment that are followed. We have seen that
the atom has its own atomic life, and that every atom of
substance in the solar system is likewise a little system
in itself, having a positive centre, or central sun, with the
electrons, or the negative aspect, revolving in their orbits
around it. Such is the internal life of the atom, its self-
centred aspect. We noted too, that the atom is now being
studied along a newer line, that of radio-activity, and it
is becoming apparent that in many cases there is an active
radiation going on. Just where this discovery is going to
lead it is impossible yet to tell, for the study of radio-active
substances is as yet in its infancy, and little is actually
known. Much of the earlier teaching of physical science
has been revolutionised by the discovery of radium, and
the more scientists find out, the more it becomes apparent,
(as they themselves realise) that we are standing on the
threshold of very great discoveries, and are on the eve of
profound revelations.
In the human being, as he evolves and develops, these
two stages can equally be seen. There is the early, or
80 THE GOAL
atomic stage, in which a man's whole centre of interest
lies within himself, within his own sphere, where self-
centredness is the law of his being, a necessary protective
stage of evolution. He is purely selfish, and concerned
primarily with his own affairs. This is succeeded by a
later stage, in which a man's consciousness begins to ex-
pand, his interests begin to lie outside his own particular
sphere, and the period arrives in which he is feeling for
the group to which he belongs. This stage might be viewed
as corresponding to that of radio-activity. He is now not
only a self-centred life, but he is also beginning to have a
definite effect upon his surroudings. He is turning his at-
tention from his own personal selfish life, and is seeking
his greater centre. From being simply an atom he is, in
his turn, becoming an electron, and coming under the in-
fluence of the great central Life which holds him within
the sphere of Its influence.
If this is so, we shall have analogous stages transpir-
ing within the life of the planetary Deity, and this per-
haps would account for various vicissitudes and happen-
ings upon the planet. Often we consider the affairs of the
world as due to human activity. The world war, for in-
stance, is frequently regarded as the result of human mis-
takes and frailties. Perhaps this is so, for undoubtedly
economic conditions and human ambitions may have been
very largely concerned in bringing it about; but perhaps,
also, it may have been partly due to the working out of
the purpose of the great central Life, Whose conscious-
ness is not as yet our consciousness, Who has His own
plans and purposes and ideals, and Who, perhaps, also
makes His experiments with life. On His vaster scale, and
on His own high level, this planetary Spirit is learning to
live, is learning to contact, and is likewise expanding His
consciousness ; He is Himself at school, just as you and I
THE GOAL 81
are at school. So, again, it may be with the solar system, and
so with events of such magnitude that they escape our ken
altogether. Perhaps there are occurrences within the
solar system which may be due to the working out of the
plans of the Deity or Logos, that central Life Who is the
energising source of all there is within the solar system.
I do not know, but it makes an interesting line of thought
for us, and it does no harm to speculate if the effect is to
give us a broader vision, a wider tolerance, and a greater
and wiser optimism.
Having seen that the two stages of atomic activity and
radio activity characterise the evolution of all atoms in
the solar system, let us now see what are the different de-
velopments which may be expected as the consciousness
within the human atom evolves. I should like to centre
our attention upon this human type of consciousness, as it
is the central evolution in the solar system. When the
three aspects of the divine life are brought together — the
indwelling life, or spirit, the material form, or substantial
vehicle, and the factor of intelligent activity — certain spe-
cific results will eventuate. We shall have the gradual
working out of consciousness of a particular kind ; the de-
velopment of psychic quality; the effect of the subjective
life upon the material form ; the utilisation of the form for
certain specific ends, and the attainment by the indwell-
ing entity of certain qualities. The true nature of the
central life, be it God or man, will be manifested during
a life cycle, whether solar or human. That is true of you
and it is true of me; it is probably true of the planetary
Logos, and if true of him, therefore also of a solar Logos.
Let us try, if we can, to follow some of the different
developments in connection with our four types of atoms —
the atom of substance, the human atom, the planetary atom
and the cosmic atom. One of the first and most important
82 THE GOAL
developments will be conscious response to every vibration
and contact, that is, the ability to respond to the not-self
on every plane. Let me illustrate. I could go down to
certain halls in this city, and gather together an audience
composed of the unskilled labourers and illiterates. I
could talk to them, and repeat what I have been saying
this evening, and get no response whatever. Yet I could
go down and give them a talk such as I gave ten years ago,
along strictly evangelical or Gospel lines, and meet with
a rapid reaction. Here the question of right or wrong-
does not enter in, but simply the difference in the ability
of different grades and types of men at different stages of
evolution to respond to contact and vibration. It simply
means that certain people are at a stage where they can
be reached by an emotional appeal, and dealt with along
the line of their own personal salvation, being in the earlier
atomic stage as yet. There is another stage which includes
that, but which enables one to respond also to a more in-
tellectual appeal, which gives one a certain amount
of interest and satisfaction in such discussions as we have
pursued, and which means investigation of those matters
which concern the group, for instance. But both stages
are equally right.
We can look at this matter from another angle: it is
quite possible for us to meet great people, wonderful men
and women, and fail to be impressed by them; we might
pass them by without recognising them, and thus miss that
which they have to give us. This happened in Palestine
in connection with the Christ, two thousand years ago.
Why? Because we ourselves are not yet great enough to
respond to them. There is something still lacking in us,
so that we are unable to realise or feel their particular
vibration. I have heard it said, and I think it is very true,
that if the Christ were to come down upon earth again, and
THE GOAL 83
walk among men as He did before, He might live His life
amongst us day after day and we would not notice any-
thing so very different in Him from the other good and un-
selfish people whom we know. We have not yet cultivated
within ourselves the ability to respond to the divine in our
brother. We usually see only that which is bad and coarse,
and are cognisant principally of our brother's faults. We
are insensitive, yet, to the best in people.
Another development will be that we shall be able
to function consciously on all planes of being. We
function consciously now on the physical plane, and there
are a few people who are able to function equally con-
sciously on the next subtler plane, that which is called the
astral plane ( a word I very much dislike, as it conveys no
real meaning to our minds) or the plane of the emotional
nature, on which a man is active when out of the physical
body, in the hours of sleep or immediately after death.
Very few human beings can function on the mental plane
in fully awakened consciousness, and still fewer upon the
spiritual plane. The object of evolution is that we should
consciously function, with full continuity of realisation,
upon the physical, emotional, and mental planes. This is
the great achievement which will some day be ours. We
shall then know what we do every hour of the day, and
not for just about fourteen hours out of the twenty-four.
At present we remain unconscious of where the real think-
ing entity is during the hours of sleep. We do not know
what his activities are, nor the condition of his environ-
ment. Some day we shall utilise and employ every minute
of every hour of every day.
Another purpose of evolution is a three-fold one, and
it is that we should have purpose or will, love, and energy
co-ordinated. That is not so as yet. We have much intelli-
gent energy continuously displayed now, but it is very rare
84 THE GOAL
indeed to meet a person whose whole life is animated by
a central purpose, which is followed unswervingly, and
which is animated and instigated by love working through
intelligent activity. The time is coming, however, when
we shall have expanded our consciousness to such an ex-
tent, and be so active within ourselves, that we shall be-
come radio-active. We shall then carry forward a definite
purpose which will be the outcome of love, and attain our
objective by means of the intelligence. This is all that God
is doing, is it not? At our present stage of development,
we are certainly intelligent, but as yet there is very little
love. We may have a little love for those we contact or
meet, and a greater love for our family and immediate
friends, but we know practically nothing of group love.
When group love is voiced for us by the great idealists of
the race it is nevertheless true that we have reached the
stage where we can respond somewhat to it, and feel that
it is something we should like to see realised. It is good
to remember that the more we think along such definitely
altruistic lines, the more we shall build up something of
very great value, and develop by slow and laborious de-
grees the rudiments of a real group consciousness, which as
yet lies far ahead for most of us.
There are several other developments during the evo-
lutionary process with which we might deal, and which
are at present so far ahead that they are practically incon-
ceivable unless we have the peculiar type of brain that can
think somewhat abstractly. There is the stage in which
we can transcend time and space, when the consciousness
of the group in all parts of the planet, for instance, will be
our consciousness, and when it will be just as easy for us
to contact the consciousness of a friend in India, Africa,
or elsewhere, as it is here; distance and separation will
prove no barrier to intercourse. Symptoms of this can be
THE GOAL 85
seen in the ability which some people have to communicate
telepathically, or to psychometrise.
It is all very well to spend some time visioning this -
distant goal, and picturing the achievement of the Logos
billions of years hence, but the thing of vital interest for
us is to get some idea of the immediate stage ahead; and
to understand what we may expect to happen in connec-
tion with the evolutionary process during the next few
thousand years. Let us consider this idea somewhat. There
are, as we know, three main lines of thought in the world,
the scientific, the religious, and the philosophical. Now,
in these three what have we got? In the scientific line of
thought we have embodied all that concerns matter, the
substance aspect of manifestation; it deals with objectiv-
ity, and with that which is material, tangible, and seen;
literally, with that which can be proven. In religious
thought we have that which is concerned with the life with-
in the form, which deals with the return of spirit to its
source, plus all that has been gained by the use of the form ;
it has reference to the subjective side of nature. In philo-
sphical thought we have what I might call the utilisation
of the intelligence by the indwelling life, in order that the
form may be adequately adapted to its need. Let us con-
sider in this connection certain developments which may
be looked for in the immediate future, remembering that
all that I say is only intended to be suggestive, and that I
speak in no dogmatic spirit.
It is obvious to most thinkers that science, having be-
gun the study of radio-activity, is on the verge of discover-
ing what is the nature of the power within the atom itself ;
it is very probable that before long we shall harness the
energy of atomic matter for every conceivable purpose,
for heating, for lighting, and for what I might call the mo-
tivation of everything that is carried on in the world. That
86 THE GOAL
force, as some of us knoAv, was nearly discovered in the
United States fifty years ago by a man called Keely, but
he was not allowed to give it out to the world because of
the danger thereby involved. Men are as yet far too selfish
to be trusted with the distribution of atomic energy. That
discovery will probably parallel the development of group
consciousness. Only when man becomes radio-active and
can work and think in group terms, will it be safe or wise
for him to utilise the power latent in the atom. Every-
thing in nature is beautifully co-ordinated, and nothing can
be discovered or utilised before the right time. Only as
man becomes unselfish will this tremendous power be per-
mitted to pass into his hands. Nevertheless, we can, I be-
lieve, look to science to make tremendous strides in the
comprehension of atomic energy.
Then paralleling the evolution of the human being
again, we can look for man to dominate the air. There is
a great vibratory sphere, or plane, in the solar system,
called in some occult books the intuitional plane; it is
called in the Eastern literature the Buddhic plane, and
its symbol is the air. Just as man is beginning to find
his way through the development of the intuition on to
that plane now, so science is beginning to discover how
to dominate the air, and as the intuition in man develops
and grows, so will his control of the air be developed
and grow. Another thing we can look for (and it is al-
ready being recognised somewhat) is the development of
the ability to see in subtler matter. Everywhere there
are children being born who see more than you or I can.
I am here referring to something that is based purely
on material grounds, and concerns the physical eye. I re-
fer to etheric vision, which is seeing in the finer matter of
the physical plane, or in that which is called the ethers.
Much interesting work has been done along this line by
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students and scientists in California. Dr. Frederick
Finch Strong has been working along this line in a val-
uable way, and teaching that the physical eye is capable of
seeing etherically, and that etheric vision is the normal
function of the eye. What will the development of this
faculty mean? It will mean that science will have definite-
ly to readjust its point of view as to the subtler planes. If
there come within the range of vision of the normal man or
woman within the next one hundred years certain aspects
and forms of life that have been regarded hitherto as imag-
inary, we have broken once and for all that rank material-
ism which has distinguished us for so long, and if that
which is now invisible is recognised along any particular
line, who shall say how far forward it will be possible for
us to go as time progresses? Again, the whole trend of
evolution is toward synthesis. As we go down into matter,
as we tend toward materialisation, we shall have hetero-
geneity ; as we work back towards spirit we shall tend to-
wards unity ; so that in the religious world we can look for
unity to make its appearance. There is, even now, a much
greater spirit of tolerance abroad than was the case fifty
years ago; but the time is rapidly approaching when the
great fundamental unity that underlies all the different
religions, and the fact that each faith is a necessary part of
one great whole, will be recognised by men everywhere, and
through this recognition, we shall have the simplification
of religion. We shall have the great central facts empha-
sized and utilised, and the small and petty differences of
organisation, and of explanation, overlooked.
Again, we can look for a very interesting happening
in connection with the human family to take place, for the
moment that group consciousness becomes, on a large scale,
the conscious objective of man, what will occur? You will
have man putting his foot upon what is called in the relig-
88 THE GOAL
ious world, the PATH. You will have him definitely tak-
ing himself in hand, endeavouring to live the life of the
spirit, refusing any longer to live a self centred atomic life ;
you will have him searching for his place within the greater
whole, finding it by means of definite self-initiated en-
deavour, and then unifying himself with that group. This
is all that is really meant by the teaching given about the
Path in the Protestant, Catholic, and Buddhist churches.
They all teach the treading of this Path, calling it by differ-
ent names, such as the Way, the noble Eight-fold Path, the
Path of Illumination, or the Path of Holiness. Yet it is
the one Path, that which shineth ever more and more unto
the perfect day.
We can look, too, for the development of the power
to think abstractly, and for the awakening of the intuition.
As the great races have succeeded one another upon the
planet, there has ever been an ordered, directed unf oldment
of the powers of the soul, and a definitely planned se-
quence. In the third root race, the Lemurian, the physical
aspect of man was carried to a high stage of perfection.
Later in the great race which preceded ours, the Atlantean,
and which perished in the flood, the emotional nature of
man was developed. Then in the race to which we belong,
the Aryan, or fifth race, the development of the concrete,
or lower mind, is the goal, and this we are developing each
decade. A few are also beginning to develop the power to
think in abstract terms.
When this is the case we shall see more of that pecu-
liar, interesting capacity which some people evince, and
which we call the ability to be inspired. I am not here
speaking of mediumship, nor do I mean mediumistic abil-
ity. There is nothing more dangerous than that which is
usually meant by the term of "medium." The average me-
dium is a man of a negative, or receptive nature, and usu-
THE GOAL 89
ally so loosely co-ordinated in his threefold nature that an
extraneous force or entity can use his brain, his hand, or
his body. It is quite a common phenomenon. Automatic
writing, ouija boards, and spiritualistic seances of a low
order, are rampant these days, and are driving thousands
into insanity, or into nervous disorders. But there is some-
thing of which mediumship is simply a distortion, and this
something is inspiration. To be capable of being inspired
means that a human being has reached a stage in his evo-
lution where he is consciously and positively under the
control of his own higher self, the God within. That inner
ruler, the real self, can, by definite contact, control his
physical brain, and enable the man to make decisions, and
to understand the truth, apart from the reasoning faculty
altogether; this inner God can enable the man to speak,
to write, and to pass on the truth without the use of the
lower mind. Truth lies within ourselves. When we can
contact our own inner God all truth will be revealed to
us. We shall be Knowers. But this is a positive, not a
negative thing, and means the putting of oneself in direct
conscious alignment with one's Ego, or higher self, and
not the throwing open of one's personality to any passing
entity or spook.
This can be seen occurring now, occasionally, but it is
not very often that the average man comes in contact with
his higher self. Only in our moments of highest endeav-
our, only at the great crises of our lives, and only as the
result of long discipline and strenuous meditation does
this occur. But some day we shall govern our entire lives,
not from the personal, selfish point of view, but from the
point of view of the God within, Who is a direct revelation
of Spirit on the highest plane.
The final thing I seek to bring out tonight is that the
goal for each one of us is the development of the powers
90 THE GOAL
of the soul, or of the psyche. This means that you and I
are going to be psychics. But I am not using this word
"psychic" as it is usually understood, nor in its every day
connotation. The psyche is, literally, the soul within, or
the higher self, who emerges from out of the threefold
lower self, as the butterfly emerges out of the chrysalis;
it is that beautiful reality, which we are going to produce
as the result of our life, or lives, down here. The true
psychic powers are those which put us in contact with the
group. The powers of the physical body, which we use
every day, put us in contact with individuals, but when we
have developed the powers of the soul, and have unfolded
its potentialities, we shall be true psychics. Now what are
those powers? All I can do tonight is to enumerate a few
out of the many.
One is the conscious control of matter. The majority
of us control our physical bodies consciously, making them
carry out our behests upon the physical plane. Some of
us control our emotions consciously, but very few of us
can control the mind. Most of us are controlled by our
desires, and by our thoughts. But the time is coming when
we shall consciously control our threefold lower nature.
Time will then not exist for us at all. We shall have that
continuity of consciousness upon the three planes of being
— physical, emotional, and mental — which will enable us
to live as does the Logos, in that very metaphysical ab-
straction, the Eternal Now.
Another power of the soul is psychometry. Now what
is psychometry? It might be defined as the ability to take
a tangible something, belonging perhaps to an individual,
and through the medium of that, to put oneself en rapport
with that individual, or with a group of individuals.
Psychometry is the law of association of ideas applied to
THE GOAL 91
the vibratory quality of force for the purpose of obtaining
information.
Again, the race will become clairaudient and clairvoy-
ant, which means the capacity to hear and see as clearly
and accurately upon the subtler planes as we do upon the
physical. It will involve the ability to hear and see all
that concerns the group, that is, to hear and see in the
fourth and fifth dimensions. I am not enough of a mathe-
matician to attempt to explain these dimensions, and am
apt myself to get very confused when considering them,
but an illustration that was given me may make the whole
thing somewhat clearer. A young Swedish thinker ex-
plained it to me thus :
"The fourth dimension is the ability to see through
and around a thing. The fifth dimension is the ability, for
instance, to take an eye, and by means of that eye to put
oneself en rapport with all other eyes in the solar system.
To see in the sixth dimension might be defined as the power
to take a pebble off the beach, and by means of it to put
oneself in accord with the entire planet. Now in the fifth
dimension, where you took the eye, you were limited to a
particular line of manifestation, but in the case of the
sixth dimension, where you took a pebble, you were put in
touch with the entire planet." This is something very
far ahead of us, but it is interesting to speak about, and
holds a promise for each and all.
There is not time to deal with the other powers, nor
can I enumerate what they all may be. Healing by touch
will be amongst them. The manipulation of the magnetic
fluids, and conscious creation by means of colour and
sound, are others. All that really concerns us at this time
is that we should consciously take ourselves in hand, seek
to come ever more and more under the control of the inner
ruler, endeavour to become radio-active, and to develop
group consciousness.
LECTURE VII.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.
It might well be considered ridiculous for anyone to
undertake to give a lecture on Cosmic Evolution, because, of
course, it is a subject which neither I nor any other mortal
knows anything about, and consequently we are utterly
unable to express ourselves upon it. Nevertheless, there
are certain deductions we can make under the law of anal-
ogy which may lead us to very interesting realms of
thought. We have for several weeks been considering the
evolution of the atom from stage to stage, until we in-
cluded the entire solar system under the term "atom".
We studied first, along general lines, the atom of sub-
stance, then we studied the human atom, and later we
applied what we knew about both these atoms to the still
larger sphere, or atom, a planet, which we called a plane-
tary atom; then we extended the idea still further to the
atom of the solar system, predicating it as having a posi-
tion within a still greater whole.
We studied three methods of evolution, or develop-
ment, in connection with this subject. We considered the
aspects which were evolved by means of these atoms, their
qualities, or psychic nature, and we saw how in the atom
of substance the only psychic quality we could postulate
about it was the quality of intelligence. We passed on
them to atomic forms, subhuman forms, and saw how the
forms in the two kingdoms of nature, the vegetable and
93
94 COSMIC EVOLUTION
animal, demonstrated another quality of the Deity, that of
sensation, feeling, or embryo love and emotion; we found
that in the animal kingdom also a third quality, that of
rudimentary mind, began to show itself, and that when we
arrived at the human atom, we had three aspects demon-
strating, intelligence, love, and a central will. We extended
this concept to the planet and to the solar system, and found
that, working out through the form of the solar system,
we had a great Intelligence or Mind; that the object of
His utilisation of form was the demonstration of another
quality, love or wisdom, the whole being energised by a
great central WILL. We deduced therefrom that this
central Will might be the manifestation of an Entity Who
informs the entire system, from the very lowest atom of
substance up to that great Life Who energises the plane-
tary scheme.
Having laid down these fundamentals we passed on
to the consideration of the evolution of the conscious life
within the atomic form, finding that a higher type of con-
sciousness is consistently evolved by each atom; that the
human consciousness is distinguished from all other lower
forms in that it is self-conscious ; that man is an intelligent
will, consciously performing every action, becoming aware
of his surroundings, and working out a definite line of
activity Avith a specific objective in view. The self -con-
sciousness of man leads on again to something wider still,
to the consciousness of the great planetary Spirit, which
may perhaps be best expressed in the term 'group con-
sciousness'. As evolution proceeds man will pass from
the stage of self-consciousness in which you and I now
are, to a realisation of what is meant by group conscious-
ness, something as yet practically unknown, except as some
beautiful ideal, and a dream which may, at some distant
time, materialise. Group consciousness, again, will logi-
COSMIC EVOLUTION 95
cally lead on to that Avhich we, for lack of a better term,
might call God-consciousness, though I deprecate the use
of the word God because of the many quarrels it causes in
the world between the different thinkers of the human
family. These differences are founded largely upon differ-
ences in phraseology, upon the terms used to express fun-
damental ideas, and upon varying methods of organisation.
When the scientist, for instance, speaks of force, or energy,
and the Christian speaks of God, and the Hindu uses terms
analogous to the 'I am that I am', or the Self, they are all
speaking of one and the same great life, but have lost much
time in endeavouring to prove each other wrong, and to
demonstrate the accuracy of their own interpretation.
We next saw that, roughly speaking, atomic evolution
could be divided into two parts or stages; one stage we
called the atomic stage, and another we called, for lack of
a better term, the radio-active stage. The atomic stage is
that in which the atom pursues its own self-centred life, is
concerned entirely with its own evolution, and the effect of
the contacts it makes. As evolution proceeds, it
becomes apparent that in time the atom begins to react
to a greater life outside itself, and in this you have the
period analogous to that of the form-building stage, in
which these atoms of substance are attracted by a greater-
charge of energy, or positive electrical force, (if you like
to call it such) which draws them, or attracts them to
itself, and builds out of them a form ; these atoms of sub-
stance, in turn, become then electrons. We found, then,
how, in your case and mine, as in the case of every self-
conscious unit, the same procedure is followed, and that
you have a central life holding within the sphere of its
influence the atoms that constitute the different bodies,
mental, emotional, and physical; that we manifest, that
we move and carry on our life, and work out our purposes,
96 COSMIC EVOLUTION
by attracting to ourselves the atoms of substance that are
adequate to our needs, and through which we can make the
necessary contacts. These atoms are to us, the central life,
what the electrons are to the central positive charge in the
atom of substance. Then we saw that if this is true, name-
ly, that there is a self-centred stage, or purely atomic per-
iod, for the atom, and for the human atom, then again for
the atom of the planet, indwelt by its central spiritual life,
we should be able to predicate logically a similar state of
affairs. Thus we were led into the field of speculation. We
considered then whether all that transpires upon our
planet may not be due to the self-centred condition of the
Entity Who is working out His purposes by means of it.
Finally we carried forward the same idea in connection
with the solar system itself.
We passed on then to the consideration of the second
stage, that which the scientist has been studying in con-
nection with the atom of the chemist and physicist for the
last twenty years, the radio-active stage ; we saw how there
was a condition analogous to this in the evolution of the
human atom, and that there is a period preceding it which
parallels the atomic stage, wherein man is purely selfish,
entirely self-centred, and pays no attention to the welfare
of the group of which he is a part. This prior stage is very
apparent in the world today. A large percentage of the
human family is in the atomic stage, but we must remem-
ber that it is a protective and necessary one; it is passed
through by every unit of the human family in the process
of finding its place within the group, and enables it to
develop something of value to give to that group when the
second stage is entered.
In the world today there are also units of the human
family who are passing into the second stage, they are be-
coming radio-active and magnetic, they influence other
COSMIC EVOLUTION 97
forms and are becoming gronp conscious ; they are passing
out of the "I am" stage into the "I am that" realisation ; the
life and purpose of the great Entity of Whose body they
are a part, is beginning to be cognised by them ; they are
becoming aware of the purpose back of the life of the plane-
tary Spirit Who is the subjective impulse lying behind
objective manifestation upon our earth. They are begin-
ning to co-operate with His plans, to work for the better-
ment of their group ; and the difference between them and
other atoms of the human family is that they are now group
conscious, they have a wider horizon, a group recognition,
and a larger purpose. At the same time they do not lose
their self -consciousness, nor their own individual identity,
and their own spheroidal life remains, but they put the
whole force and energy which flows through them not into
the working out of their own plans, but into an intelligent
co-operation with the greater Life of which they are a part.
Such men are few and far between, but when they are
more in number, then we can look for a change in world
conditions, and for that time to arrive, of which St. Paul
speaks when he says : "There should be no division in the
body, but the members should have the same care one for
another. Whether one member suffer, all members suffer
with it, or one member be honoured, all rejoice with it. . . .
it is the same God which worketh all in all. There are
diversities of gifts but the same spirit ; there are differences
of ministries (or service) but the same Lord." When we
are all group conscious, when we are all aware of the pur-
pose which lies back of manifestation upon our planet,
when we are consciously active, and throwing all our
energy into the working out of group plans, then we shall
have what the Christian calls the "millennium".
Now, if you have in the evolution of the atom of sub-
stance, and the human atom, these two stages, if they are
98 COSMIC EVOLUTION
the basis of all future development, then within the plane-
tary atom you will have the same two stages, that in which
the planetary Life is working out His own plans, and a
later one in which He falls in with the greater plans of the
Life which animates the solar system. Not yet being in a
position to have an interview with the planetary Spirit, I
am unable to tell you whether He is as yet co-operating in
the purposes of the solar Logos ; but we might be able to
get some idea of the general purpose by the study of race
evolution and the development of the great international
plans within the planet. We must bear in mind also, that,
though we human beings consider ourselves as the highest
and greatest manifestation upon the planet, there may be
other evolutions through which the central Life may be
working, of which we know as yet but little, We must
study not only man, but should consider also the angel
evolution, or the deva evolution, as the Hindu calls it. This
opens up for us an immense field of study and speculation.
Again, within the solar system we shall expect to find
analogous stages. We shall find, probably, that the great
Life animating the entire solar system, the great Entity
Who is using it for the working out of a definite purpose,
energises it by means of these great centres of force which
we call planetary atoms ; that these centres, in their turn,
work by means of lesser centres or groups, passing their
energy on down through groups of human atoms to the
various kingdoms of nature, and thus to the little atom of
substance which, in its turn, reflects the entire solar sys-
tem. This question of atomic life, if we think it out, is
vastly interesting, and leads us into many lines of conjec-
ture. One of the main points of interest which it opens up
is the intimate correlation, and close interaction of the
atoms of every kind, and the all-pervading unity which
must ultimately be recognised. If we have found that
COSMIC EVOLUTION 99
there comes a stage in the evolution of all atoms of every
land in which they feel and search for their place within
the group, and from being positive become negative in re-
gard to a greater life, if it is true in all these manifesta-
tions of consciousness there is a self-conscious stage and a
group conscious stage, is it not logical and possible that
perhaps, after all, our solar system is but an atom within
a greater whole? May there not be for our solar system,
and our solar Logos, a central larger life towards which
the informing Spirit within the solar sphere is gradually
attracted, and towards Whose consciousness our Deity as-
pires? Are there anywhere indications of such an attrac-
tive force, or goal? Are there greater spheres of solar life
outside our system, that have a definite effect upon it? This
may be but a speculation, but it has its points of interest.
If we study astronomical books, and seek to ascertain
whether astronomers say that this is so, we shall meet with
a vast amount of contradictory opinion ; we shall find that
some astronomers say that within the Pleiades is a central
point around which our solar system revolves ; others say
that in the constellation of Hercules, is the point of mag-
netic attraction for our solar system. On the other hand,
you will find this flatly contradicted. We shall find some
astronomers talking about "star-drift," and saying that
the drift, or trend, of certain stars is in a specific direction ;
others argue that the distances are so vast that it is im-
possible to determine whether certain systems are follow-
ing a definite orbit or not.
Nevertheless, if we go to some of the ancient books,
those which we call mythological ( and a myth may be de-
fined as something which holds a great truth hidden until
we are ready to understand it) , and if we study the ancient
books of the East, we shall find that in all of them there
are two or three constellations which are regarded as hav-
100 COSMIC EVOLUTION
ing a peculiarly intimate relation to our solar system. To-
wards these views modern astronomers as yet hold an
agnostic attitude, and from the point of view of material-
istic science, rightly so. What I seek to emphasize here is
that a topic upon which scientists and astronomers are
divided, yet which is nevertheless a subject of contention,
and one upon which the oriental books sound a clear note,
must have a basis in fact, and that there is probably an
aspect of truth in the assertion. I would personally sug-
gest here that that aspect of truth will be found, not along
physical lines of interpretation, but along the lines of con-
sciousness; that it is the psychic evolution that is going on
within all atoms (using psychic in the sense of the subjec-
tive consciousness) which is hinted at in these books, and
the emphasis is laid upon our having an occult relation-
ship with other solar systems. Here the truth may perhaps
be found. The life subjective may be one; the energy flow-
ing between them may be one ; but in the physical form lies
diversity. Perhaps in the evolution of the intelligence, in
the manifestation of love, or group consciousness, and in
the development of will or purpose, lies unity, the one-ness
of the subjective life, and the eventual recognition that
within the form, and in the form only, lies separation and
differentiation.
The ancient books of the East point out, in considering
this subject, that the seven stars of the Great Bear, the
seven stars of the Pleiades, and the sun Sirius, have a
very close connection with our solar system, and that they
hold an intimate psychic magnetic relation to our solar
Logos. We have seen that the goal for the atom of sub-
stance is self-consciousness ; and that for the Entity Who
is evolving through a planet, the goal may be God con-
sciousness. Now, of course, when you consider the solar
Logos words fail, yet for Him also there must be a goal. You
COSMIC EVOLUTION 101
can call this Absolute Consciousness, if you like. Let us
again illustrate this. Our body, we have been told, is made
up of a multiplicity of little lives, or cells, or atoms, each
having its own individual consciousness. This corresponds
to its self -consciousness. The consciousness of the physical
body, viewed as a whole, might, from the atom's point of
view, be regarded as its group consciousness. Then we
have the consciousness of man, the thinker. He is the one
who energises the body, and turns it to his will; that is,
to the atom in his body, analogous to what we might call
God consciousness. Our self-conscious realisation is as
far removed from that of the atom as the consciousness of
the solar Logos is from ours. Now to the atom in our body
that consciousness of the solar Logos might be called Ab-
solute Consciousness, might it not? This thought can be
extended to the human atom, to the planetary atom, and
you can further predicate that the solar Logos reaches out
to a consciousness beyond His own analogous to that which
stretches between the atom in your body and Him. Here
you have a very marvellous vista opening up. Yet this is,
in itself, encouraging ; for if we study closely the cell in a
physical body, and consider the long road that has been
travelled between its consciousness, and that which a man
now knows to be his, we have for ourselves the promise and
hope of future achievement, and the incentive to persist in
our endeavour.
The old books of the East have held secreted for many
ages the truth about much which is only now beginning
to sink into the consciousness of the occidental. They
taught the radio-activity of matter thousands of years ago,
and so perhaps, after all, there may be an equal amount of
truth in their teaching about the constellations. Perhaps
in the stars that we can see in the distant heavens, and
in the life that is evolving within them, we have the objec-
102 COSMIC EVOLUTION
live of our solar Logos, and the influences that are flowing
towards him, attracting him towards them, and making
him, in due course of time, radio-active. In the Eastern
hooks they say that in the sun Sirius lies the source of
wisdom, and that the influence or the energy of love eman-
ates from there. Then they say that there is a constella-
tion that is even more closely connected with our solar
Logos, the reason being that He is not, as yet, sufficiently
evolved so that He can respond completely to Sirius, but
He can respond to the influence of the seven sisters or the
Pleiades. This group is a most interesting one. If you
will go to the dictionary and look up the word "electricity",
you will find it suggested that it may be traced back to
the star Electra, one of the seven sisters, and supposed by
some to be the little lost Pleiad. The Eastern teachers say
that in the mystery of electricity is hidden all knowledge,
and that when we have fathomed that we shall know all
there is to be known. What the relationship of the Plei-
ades to our solar system may be, it is not possible for us
to say, but even our Christian Bible recognises it, and Job
speaks of "the sweet influences of the Pleiades," whilst
some of the Oriental Scriptures affirm that the connection
lies in sound, or vibration. Perhaps the Pleiades are the
source of the atomic life of our Logos, the active intelligent
aspect, that one which was first developed, and which we
might call electrical matter.
Then there is the Great Bear. There is much that is
interesting said about the relation between the Great Bear
and the Pleiades in Oriental writings. The seven sisters
are said to be the seven wives of the seven stars of the
Great Bear. Now what is perhaps the truth back of that
legend? If the Pleiades are the source of electrical mani-
festation, the active intelligent aspect of the solar system,
and their energy that which animates all matter, they may
COSMIC EVOLUTION 103
perhaps represent the negative aspect, whose polar oppo-
site, or the positive aspect, is their seven hnsbands, the
seven stars of the Great Bear. Perhaps the nnion of these
two is what produces our solar system. Perhaps these two
types of energy, one from the Pleiades, and the other from
the Great Bear, meet, and in their conjunction produce
that blazing forth in the heavens which we call our solar
system.
The relationship of these two constellations, or rather
their subjective relationship, must surely have some basis
in fact, or we would not have it hinted at in the different
mythologies. There must be something that connects them,
out of all the myriads of constellations, with our solar
system. But when we endeavour to give it a purely physi-
cal application we go astray. If we work it out along the
lines of the subjective life, and connect it with energy,
quality, or force, we are liable to stumble upon truth, and
find out some of the reality which may underly what ap-
pears at first sight to be a senseless fable. Anything that
widens our horizon, that enables us to take a broader vi-
sion and a clearer view of what is going on in the evolu-
tionary process, is of value to us, not because the accu-
mulation of ascertained facts is of value, but because of
what it enables us to do within ourselves; our ability to
think in wider and larger terms is increased; we are en-
abled to look beyond our self-centred point of view, and to
include within our consciousness other and different
aspects than our own. In doing this we are developing
group consciousness, and we shall realise eventually that
the apparently stupendous facts which we fought and died
for down the ages, and emphasised as the entire truth,
were after all but fragments of a plan, and infinitesimal
portions of a gigantic sum total. Perhaps, therefore, when
we come back to earth again, and can look back upon the
/ - T773
ry<
104 COSMIC EVOLUTION
things that interest ns now, and which we consider so
important, we shall ~nd how erroneous facts were as we
then apprehended m. Facts, after all, do not matter;
the facts of the la^t century are not facts now, and in the
next century scientists may laugh at our dogmatic asser-
tions, and wonder how we could have looked upon
matter as we di' It is the development of the life, and
the relationship of the life to all that is around, that really
matters ; and, above all, the effect that we are having upon
those with whom we are associated, and the work we do,
which affects, for better or for worse, the group ,in which
we find ourselves.
In closing this series of lectures, I cannot do better
than quote again from St. Paul, where he says : "I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us
for we are saved by hope for I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God."
FINIS
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